Shallow Grave by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles Page A

burst into tears at the sight of his wife’s handbag, and offered no explanation as to how it got into the back of his pickup, so I’m here to tell you, ladies and germs, that with Mr Porson’s blessing, Andrews is now officially nicked.’
    ‘For murder?’ Anderson asked.
    ‘Hold your horses. We still don’t know what she died of. Suspicion of interfering with the body is all we’ve got so far, but it means we can get stuck in.’ There were murmurs of satisfaction around the room. ‘Right, the house-to-house continues. Norma, you’re going to look into Andrews’ finances. Let’s have the BT record for his home number – that will give us some corroboration as to whether he was home or not, and may help us with the whereabouts of Mrs. Find out if either or both had a mobile and get the call records on them – McLaren, you can do those. And someone had better call her GP and find out if she had a heart disease or was taking anything.’
    ‘Guv, what’s the SP on the post?’ Anderson asked.
    ‘Doc Cameron’s doing it this afternoon, if we’re lucky.’
    ‘Blimey, that’s quick,’ said Hollis.
    ‘Close personal of the guv’nor,’ McLaren said. ‘It pays to be popular in this game.’
    ‘How would you know?’ Norma asked cruelly.
    Freddie Cameron telephoned very late. ‘What are you doing still there?’
    ‘What are you?’ Slider countered.
    ‘Struggling with this corpse of yours.’
    ‘Metaphorically, I hope.’
    ‘Thanks to you I’m now thoroughly behind with the rest of my work. It was an absolute stinker –
absit omen
– but I think I’ve cracked it at last. Would you like to guess?’
    ‘Can’t be anything obvious, if it took you so long.’
    ‘Thanks for the vote of confidence. Mine in you to solve the crime, let me say, is as solid.’
    ‘Crime? It is murder, then? I’m glad to hear it, because we’ve got the husband binned up.’
    ‘You arrested him? That was bold of you.’
    ‘We found her handbag in his truck, and Porson agreed that was enough to start with. But we’d sooner know what crime we’re dealing with. So far all we’ve got is interfering with the body.’
    ‘Ah, yes, now, we knew she must have been moved, but the hypostasis confirms it. The distribution suggests she was left at first in a sitting position for several hours. Sitting as if on a chair, with the legs bent at the knee. And she was tied to whatever it was to keep her in position.’
    ‘Tied up?’
    ‘With something broad and flat, like a luggage strap, for instance, passed around the upper body, but with the arms inside. Definitely post-mortem. No ante-mortem ligature marks. Tied quite loosely: her weight had fallen forward against the strap.’
    Slider digested that. The being tied in position suggested it had been for purposes of hiding the body, presumably until it was late enough and quiet enough to take it to the trench. In the back of Eddie’s truck, sitting on a sack under a tarpaulin? Something like that. ‘So what did you decide in the end was the cause of death?’
    Freddie hesitated. ‘If it came to court, it’s one of those cases where defence would probably bring in their own expert opinion to contest my findings, so you’d better try your utmost for a confession. But I’d say it was suffocation.’
    ‘I’ve never known you so cautious,’ Slider said. ‘Suffocation? Surely that leaves definite signs? Petechiae, for instance? And cyanosis?’
    Cameron chuckled. ‘There’s my educated copper!’
    ‘It’s a misspent youth hanging around morgues. Well, am I right?’
    ‘You are,’ Cameron agreed. ‘But, you see, petechiae aren’t caused by the lack of oxygen itself; it’s the raised venous pressure that does it – due to, for instance, constriction of the throat or thorax. Cyanosis – and oedema, for that matter– are congestive signs. Where asphyxia is not accompanied by any violence or struggle, the classic signs can be completely absent. Plastic-bag suicides, for