Free And None Shall Sleep by Priscilla Masters Page A

glanced around at the trees. ‘You’ll find most of his brains around there,’ he said. ‘Be a good idea to take some specimens.’ Then he peered at the bullet entry wound. ‘I think,’ he said slowly, frowning, ‘at a guess a small handgun. But a lot of damage. More than I would have expected.’ He paused. ‘Professional-looking job, isn’t it?’
    Joanna stood quite still and knew Matthew had voiced what she’d been thinking. She glanced again at the dead man, then across at Mike. She knew he too had been thinking the same thing.
    â€˜I think I’ll measure the calibre at the morgue.’ Matthew touched the bullet hole. ‘Get it more exactly. The barrel was jammed right against his head. Nice example of contact burn.’ He looked up at her. ‘I suppose there’s no doubt it is Selkirk’
    She nodded. ‘It looks like it.’ She smiled as she watched him work. ‘There can’t be many middle-aged men wandering around Leek in nothing but a pair of pyjamas.’ She glanced at the back of the man’s hand. ‘Especially men who’ve recently had a hospital drip pulled out.’
    Matthew turned his attention to the bindings on the wrists. He studied them for a moment before rolling the body over and staring at it for a while. Then he stood up.
    â€˜Judging from a very superficial examination, I’d say he most probably has been lying here since some time late Monday night/early Tuesday morning.’ He stopped. ‘In other words it’s probable that he was brought from the hospital straight here and shot within an hour or so of the abduction.’
    He peeled off his gloves. ‘I’ll be able to tell you more after the PM but I think we’d better get him formally identified first, if possible.’
    Her eyes were again drawn to the gaping face. ‘Identified?’
    â€˜Well, you know what I mean.’ Matthew addressed the photographer. ‘Finished? Fine. Then get him moved. I’ll ring the Coroner, Joanna,’ he said. ‘And we’ll do the PM this afternoon. OK with you?’
    She nodded. As the team were starting to move Selkirk’s body Matthew touched Joanna’s arm. ‘Jo,’ he said. ‘I don’t know whether you’ve had time to think about this – started to draw any conclusions.’
    She could guess what he was about to say. ‘You think this is no ordinary killing, right?’ Selkirk’s body was being loaded on to the stretcher and covered with a sheet.
    â€˜No way,’ he said, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. ‘I don’t exactly have experience of this sort of thing. But I’ve heard about them.’ He stopped. ‘It looks to me very like a professional job – an execution.’ He stopped. ‘A paid killing. The knots around the wrist – very deft and very firm. Someone visited the hospital that night. God knows why Selkirk didn’t shout out. Why go meekly with an abductor?’
    â€˜If he had a gun held to his head?’
    Matthew ran his fingers through his hair and gave her a worried look. ‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘Maybe. Anyway, as you’ve said, this person probably held a gun to his head, ripped all the electrodes off and pulled out his drip, bundled him into the car, drove him out here, at some time tied his wrists, forced him to kneel – and blew his face off.’
    She blinked at the brutality of his words yet knew he was almost certainly right. It had happened like this.
    â€˜But why? And who?’
    He grinned at her. ‘That’s where my work ends and yours begins,’ he said. ‘Darling.’

Chapter Five
    â€˜Let’s get him formally identified first.’
    Joanna was sitting opposite Superintendent Arthur Colclough. Mike was propping up the door.
    Colclough’s plump face was sober. She had spared him none of the details. ‘I