‘I’ve had a look at the burns on Crossly and de Souza,’ I said. ‘They’re not thermal.’
‘Come again?’ Whelan said.
‘They’re electrical burns. The victims weren’t branded. Someone repeatedly gave them electric shocks, strong enough to burn the bone.’
‘Are you sure?’ Ward’s fatigue had suddenly gone.
‘As sure as I can be. Visually, they’re very similar, but thermal burns are bigger and less focused. That’s why these were so small, and why there wasn’t much external scorching. The current passes directly through the skin and muscle. Both types of burn can cause fractures, but with electrical ones there’s damage on the microscale as well. You get microscopic cracks in the bone’s structure, which is what I found here. It explains the other injuries too, like the larger fractures on their arms. And the abrasions from the straps weren’t from them being beaten or trying to escape, they were from seizures. That’s why both victims’ teeth were cracked, because they’d been clenched so hard during muscle spasms.’
‘Jesus.’ Ward was fully alert now, assessing what this could mean. ‘What was it, some sort of stun weapon like a Taser?’
I shook my head. ‘I don’t think so. That wouldn’t carry enough charge to cause injuries like these. But with no mains electricity in the hospital, it would have to be something portable.’
‘We found car batteries inside,’ Whelan said. ‘We thought they’d just been dumped, but if someone ran jump leads from them would they have been powerful enough?’
‘I don’t know,’ I admitted. ‘Perhaps if there were enough of them.’
This was entering unknown territory. Not much research had been done on electrical burns to bone, and I’d come across them only a few times before. And they’d been the result of massive shocks from faulty wiring or workplace accidents, and in one case a lightning strike. Nothing remotely like this.
‘Whatever it was, I don’t think it was just used for torture,’ I went on. ‘From their placement, most of the burns look to have been made when the victims were lying down. But Maria de Souza had one behind her ear, and Darren Crossly had one in the middle of his breastbone. I think they were given shocks to stun them. Him when he was facing forward, and her by someone standing behind her.’
‘Maybe she was trying to escape,’ Whelan said. ‘You’d stun the big one first because he’s more dangerous, then the girlfriend as she tries to run away.’
Ward was nodding. ‘Makes sense. But why the hell didn’t Mears spot it?’
‘I think he did. He just didn’t want to admit it,’ I said. ‘He’d started off assuming the burns were thermal and then couldn’t let go of the idea. Not once he’d committed himself and told you about it. I think that’s why he was taking so long — he couldn’t accept that the facts didn’t fit his theory.’
It was known as cognitive bias. I’d known more than a few academics who’d fallen prey to it, stubbornly refusing to admit they’d made an error, despite mounting evidence. It happened with older individuals as well, but with Mears his arrogance had been compounded by inexperience. He’d been so desperate to prove himself on his first major case that he’d lost sight of what he was supposed to be doing.
It was the least of his problems now.
Ward obviously thought so too. ‘Well, leaving Daniel Mears aside, at least we know how the victims were overpowered as well as tortured. That’s a step forward. Was there anything else?’
It was said with the air of dismissal, but I hadn’t finished. ‘Actually, there is. I think the same thing happened to Christine Gorski.’
That got their attention. ‘I thought she didn’t have any burns?’ Ward said, frowning.
‘None that I could see, no. But she could have had one somewhere we wouldn’t know about.’
I saw Ward’s face change as she realized. ‘You mean her stomach.’
‘I think so, yes. We know there wasn’t a big wound because there was no blood on her clothes. But she was wearing a cropped top that would have exposed her midriff, and a contact burn from an electric shock could have broken the skin without it bleeding. That’d be enough to attract flies when she died, especially if it became infected first.’
That met with a sombre silence.
‘You don’t know that for sure, though,’ Whelan said after a moment. ‘You said yourself there was nothing on her body to say that’s what happened.’
‘Not on hers, no.’ I took a breath, loath to say it. ‘But there was on the foetus.’
At first I’d thought the minuscule fractures on the delicate bones must have occurred when its mother’s body was moved. But after I’d seen Darren Crossly’s and Maria de Souza’s injuries, I’d examined the foetal skeleton as well and seen how similar the injuries were.
‘Muscle contractions from an electric shock can cause bone fractures,’ I told them. ‘That’s what caused them on Crossly and de Souza, and I think that’s what happened to the foetus as well. The womb and amniotic fluid might have offered some protection, but… not much.’
‘Jesus,’ Whelan muttered, shaking his head.
But Ward was unconvinced. ‘If someone gave Christine Gorski an electric shock, why didn’t she have any fractures herself?’
‘They don’t always happen. The foetus was much smaller and closer to the charge. And Christine Gorski did have a dislocated shoulder. The muscle spasms can cause that as well, so it’s possible that happened at the same time.’
‘Her waters broke.’ Whelan’s voice was a rasp. ‘That’s what those splashes were on the loft steps and loft insulation. Some bastard gave her an electric shock and her waters broke.’
I’d reached the same conclusion. And then, when she’d tried to get away, someone had followed her up to the loft and bolted it behind her.
Whelan seemed relieved when his phone rang. He moved further away on the steps to answer as Ward continued.
‘So we’re looking at the same person being responsible for all three victims.’ She squeezed the bridge of her nose, rubbing her eyes. ‘Christine Gorski, Crossly and de Souza, and probably Wayne Booth as well, although we can’t prove that yet.’
‘I spoke to Ainsley earlier,’ I said. ‘He told me they weren’t Gary Lennox’s fingerprints you found at St Jude’s. Did Lola change her mind about letting you take them?’
Ward’s earlier animation had died. ‘No. She was still withholding consent, so we seized his feeder cup and a mug she’d used from their house. It wouldn’t be admissible in court but it meant we could run their fingerprints against the ones from St Jude’s. None of them matched.’
So that was that. After all the fuss and trouble, the case against Gary Lennox had been a waste of time, just as Ainsley had said. True, at least now he was receiving proper medical care, but I doubted that would count for much with Lola. Good job, Hunter.
‘So where does that—’ I began, but Ward raised her hand.
‘Hang on.’
She was looking at Whelan. He was still on the phone, frowning as he listened to what was being said at the other end.
‘Something’s up,’ he told her, before speaking into the phone again. ‘Say that again, you’re not…’
His frown deepened, and as it did I heard a car engine approaching. An unmarked red van was being driven slowly down the driveway towards the hospital. Walking in front, as though escorting it, were two uniformed police officers. I recognized the cheerful young PC and her older colleague who’d been on the gate, but even when I saw the van driver’s hand extended from its open window, holding something aloft, I didn’t realize what was happening.