‘Any thoughts on time of death?’
‘On first inspection, it happened no longer than two hours ago.’
‘Did she have on her person anything that can help us to identify her?’ Gina asked.
‘Not that we know of. Her jacket pockets have been checked. The contents have been bagged. There was just a set of keys, that’s all. Oh, you can’t quite see from the angle she’s positioned in, but she has a small faded butterfly tattoo on her ankle. It looks like she’s had at least one session of laser removal but not recently.’
Gina felt a shiver prickling on the back of her neck as she imagined the scene. Closing her eyes, she tried to picture the sequence of events unfolding. The woman would have been walking in heels, maybe from a night out or from a friend’s house. Maybe she’d been on a date. There were no pubs or clubs close by. As she walked in the dark, had she heard someone following her or was she with her attacker? Maybe her attacker walked her home. Maybe a stranger had seen her walking alone and followed her, seizing the opportunity to attack. A weapon was used. Did the attacker have this on their person? If so, it wouldn’t have been a spontaneous attack. Why this woman? She needed to know who lay before her. A crime scene investigator nudged her out of the way as he finished erecting the tent, finally covering the body from the public’s prying eyes. She was certain that none of them really wanted to see what had happened on their own doorsteps.
‘Right, let’s go and speak to our witness.’ Jacob pulled his hood down as he left the inner cordon and led her over to the stepping plates.
The witness looked to be in her early forties. She leaned against the wall of the end house, her greyhound patiently standing beside her, oblivious to its owner’s suffering. PC Smith met Gina and Jacob a short distance from the shocked-looking woman. ‘Alright, guv. She’s not doing too well. Paramedics have checked her over and she’s in shock. She’s slowly coming too, but she’s not good. She lives in one of the flats just down the road caring for her sick mother, so we’ve sent an officer over to sit with her mother while we get a statement. Also, our officers are knocking on doors, appealing for witnesses.’
Gina glanced over and saw a paramedic sitting the woman in a wheelchair. Her sweaty hair and glassy eyes showed Gina exactly what she’d been through. ‘Do we know her name?’
‘Vicky Calder, forty-two years old.’ Smith zipped up his fluorescent jacket and stepped aside.
As Gina approached, her knees clicked. She crouched in front of the woman. ‘Vicky? Do you mind if I call you Vicky?’
The pale woman wiped a tear from her eye as her gaze met Gina’s. She shook her head. ‘I was just walking Sprinter, my dog, and—’
Gina noticed the woman shaking. ‘DS Driscoll, would you grab a blanket or something?’ Jacob nodded and walked over to the ambulance, jogging back with a foil blanket. Gina placed it over the woman’s knees.
‘Thank you.’
‘Can you tell me what happened, Vicky? We need to catch whoever did this.’
She nodded and cleared her throat. ‘We live in a flat, Mum and I, and when the dog needs to go, I have to take him for a walk. Normally his last walk is around eleven but he was whimpering to go out again. I threw my clothes on and thought I’d quickly go round the block and—’
‘You’re doing really well, Vicky. What happened next?’
The woman shook her head and let out a whimper as she sobbed. ‘It had just started raining so I’d hurried.’ She paused. ‘He was there as I came through the alleyway. I saw a shadow of a person stooping over before dragging her along the pavement. I couldn’t move, or shout. He heard me, then he let go of her and ran. A few seconds later, I heard a car start up and drive off. It could have been me. If I was out with Sprinter just a few minutes earlier, it could have been me—’
Gina noted down that Vicky had described the perpetrator as a he. ‘Can you be sure it was a man?’
Vicky shook her head. ‘He walked like a man and seemed stocky. It was dark, that’s all I could see. I was frozen to the spot, but the dog wouldn’t stop snuffling in the verges and the man heard and spotted me. As soon as he knew I was there, he ran.’
‘What time was this?’
‘I can’t remember. I didn’t even look at the time before I left the flat. I think it was gone half twelve. I’d been looking on Facebook at that time.’
Gina felt her feet begin to deaden but she wasn’t about to stand. She needed to keep Vicky talking to her. ‘Can you remember anything else about him?’
She shook her head, teeth chattering as she tried to think. Jacob removed his overcoat and placed it over her shoulders. ‘Here you go. This should warm you up.’
A couple came out onto the street in their dressing gowns and began staring. ‘Could one of you please bring a hot drink out?’ Gina shouted over to them.
They nodded and the woman went back into the house leaving the man to find out more. If people were going to stand there, she couldn’t stop them, but she could at least get them to help.
‘Going back to the attacker, can you give us a description?’
Vicky shook her head. ‘It really was too dark. He was taller than me. I’m five foot tall.’
Gina looked at the pavement, her own legs beginning to wobble after holding the same position for so long. It was likely that most people were going to be taller. So far, their perpetrator was likely to be male and over five feet tall.
‘I can’t tell you any more. I don’t know anything else. Is the woman okay? Will she live?’
Gina stood, her legs no longer able to hold her position. ‘I’m really sorry, but the woman you found was dead when officers arrived at the scene.’
