The only answer was a shuffling of feet as the rest of the team looked at each other. Corstorphine pursed his lips. They had to make progress or risk being side-lined by the Inverness detectives as soon as the story broke.
“OK. Here’s what I’m proposing. The killer planned these deaths meticulously. No forensics evidence was found at either scene, so they know enough about police procedures to wear protective clothing. The gears we’ve found, I believe they were used to create the mechanisms that killed both of our victims. Forensics provided this diagram, showing how the bell rope could have transferred energy via the large bone wheel to the hacksaw.” Corstorphine pressed the keyboard space bar, and the sketch of a Heath Robinson device appeared on the screen behind him.
“So, the minister was the cause of his own death – that’s sick!” PC Lamb stared with fascination at the screen.
Corstorphine wasn’t too sure what the PC meant by ‘sick’. That generation tended to turn words on their heads, and he had a feeling that his own interpretation might be at odds with what Lamb meant. He decided to let it pass. “Yes, Lamb, it takes a certain mindset to create such a scenario. Unfortunately, the mechanism found at the tree was completely destroyed, but we hope we may have identified someone who may be able to piece it together.” He looked towards Frankie with hope.
“Yes, sir. I’ve talked to a local clockmaker. He’s offered us his help in trying to discover how the mechanism may have worked. I’ll take him what we’ve found once forensics give us the all clear on handling the evidence.”
“Thank you, Frankie. There are a number of lines of investigation I want to follow, and small as our team here is, it goes without saying I want all of you to work on these murders to the exclusion of everything else. You’ll be aware that the Courier has somehow managed to find out nearly as much about these murders as we have. If I find anyone has been speaking to the press, you’ll be out of the force and minus a pension before you can draw a breath. Do I make myself clear?”
A muttered ‘Yes, sir’ came from the gathering, all finding anywhere to look rather than catch Corstorphine’s eye.
“Good. Right now, we have two murder investigations under way and next to no suspects in the frame. The national newspapers are likely to catch wind of this today and as sure as night follows day they will be turning up here tomorrow, sniffing around for a story. Unless we want to look totally incompetent, we better have something substantial to report by the end of the day. I don’t have to say that the top brass will also be taking a special interest in our performance, so it’s in all of our interests to crack this fast.”
He pointed to Hamish, standing at the back. “Hamish, you were first on the scene at the site of June Stevens’ death. I want you to dig out your notebook from that day and you and I will go over the details like it was a fresh investigation. Frankie, I was talking with DI Rankin yesterday, he mentioned June Stevens’ daughter was taken to the old orphanage on City Road after her death. She went missing from there after a few months – look into her disappearance and find out what you can about the orphanage. Lamb, McAdam, I want you to talk to anyone locally you can find, who worked or stayed at the orphanage. Get me names, dates and anything of note. I also want you to find out if anyone has moved here recently. Don’t be too obvious about it but any new faces, I want to know about them. Any of you find anything, straight to me. If I’m not available, contact Frankie. We’ll get together at 16:30 for a debrief and update.” He dismissed them, glad to see the team moving with a fresh sense of purpose.