the new DI got up there, but DCI Kapoor called him and asked him to deal with it.’
‘So, he’s already there?’
‘Yeah, him and DS Grey.’
‘What?’ he said, managing to soften it a moment before it came out of his mouth.
‘She said she tried to call you, but you didn’t answer.’
‘I’m on my way.’ He hung up and jumped out of Imogen’s bed.
Adrian pulled his jeans on and roughly pulled back the sheets, noticing the full mug of coffee on the side table. He picked it up and it was still warm; she hadn’t long left. This was her apology. He drank it and left it on the bedside table.
At the university it didn’t take him long to find them, and as he walked through the halls of the humanities department, he could hear Imogen speaking before he saw her. He turned the corner to see her standing next to DI Matt Walsh, the newbie in CID. He must have been approaching fifty years old, with white-grey hair, but somehow still quite youthful in appearance. He wore jeans and a blazer, and his hair was thick and floppy, reminiscent of the nineties somewhat.
As if sensing his presence, they both turned to look at him in unison. He noticed Imogen’s eyes dart away for a second before resuming her composure.
DI Walsh held his hand out immediately. ‘Detective Miles, good to see you again.’
‘Detective Walsh. Please, call me Adrian.’
‘Likewise, call me Matt though, not Adrian.’
Adrian half-smiled. ‘What’s happened?’
‘Professor of Philosophy found dead in his office.’
‘Dead how?’ Adrian asked, annoyed that he was out of the loop and the information was being drip-fed to him.
‘Murdered. Looks like he got his head bashed in with a large glass paperweight,’ Matt Walsh said.
‘This feels like an episode of Columbo already,’ Adrian said.
‘The techs are just in taking photos and logging evidence, but go ahead.’
Adrian walked into the office, where three crime scene technicians were doing their business. He stayed in the corner and looked around the room. Being there in person was different to seeing photographs; in Adrian’s experience, memories of scenes could be powerful, things could get burned into the mind. Photographs just didn’t give you the same perspective. He had heard of cases in the military where they had to get in and out of a scene without touching it, so they would use special cameras to capture the scene, then use giant 3D printers to recreate it perfectly, just so they could get the perspective and walk through the scene as many times as they needed.
The professor’s face was hardly a face at all; caved in from the force and weight of the instrument used to kill him, the attack seemed almost frenzied. There were signs of a struggle, with books and papers strewn across the floor. Blood was spattered all up the walls, across the desk, everywhere, and the resin ball lay on the ground near the body. A blue flower was trapped inside, striking against the red of the blood. Someone must have been very angry to commit this level of violence, there was something crazed about it. No effort to tidy up or hide anything either. Adrian couldn’t imagine it was opportunistic in motive at least.
‘Any fingerprints?’ he asked the crime scene technicians.
‘Hundreds. But it looks like our perp wore gloves, so I doubt we’re going to find any,’ the technician closest to him said.
‘Any ideas at all?’
‘I’d say with the force used that you’re definitely looking for a male. And the stamina suggests someone young. They mashed his head. It’s going to be nigh on impossible to recreate the skull; it’s in tiny pieces and totally smushed in with brain matter.’
‘Vivid, thanks,’ Adrian said.
Adrian left the room; he’d seen and heard enough for now. Imogen and Matt Walsh were in the corridor, chatting about his previous placement.
‘Did you know DI Walsh used to work with DCI Kapoor?’ Imogen said.
‘I had heard that, yes,’ Adrian said, almost certain he had discussed it with Imogen before.
‘They used to be partners.’
‘Interesting,’ Adrian said, playing along with whatever Imogen was doing.
‘She’s one of the good ones. You guys got lucky getting her. I was happy to hear a placement opened up here so that I could apply,’ Matt said.
‘It’s not weird, working under your former partner?’ Imogen asked.
Adrian knew she was talking about them – one of them was bound to get promoted one day and he didn’t know how that would work, if it even could work.
‘It’s pretty great knowing someone you can trust has your back, actually.’
‘Sounds like you’ve been burned before,’ she continued.
‘Haven’t we all?’
‘Were you two ever … together?’ Adrian asked.
Imogen shot him a look.
DI Matt Walsh let out a raucous laugh, completely inappropriate given the situation. It reverberated so much in the room that everyone turned to look at him. There was a momentary pause before normal crime scene hubbub returned.
‘Nice to know she hasn’t changed,’ Matt said.
‘What do you mean?’ asked Adrian.
‘She doesn’t exactly talk about herself much, does she?’
‘True,’ Imogen acknowledged.
‘Well, she’s not exactly into guys.’
‘Oh.’ Adrian was surprised.
‘I didn’t find out ’til three years in, so you’ve got the jump on me,’ Matt said.
‘What do you think of this crime, then?’ Imogen asked, clearly uncomfortable with talking about the DCI’s personal business.
‘Messy and inexperienced.’
‘A student?’ Adrian said.
‘Maybe. Have a chat with some of the faculty in this block, see if they know anything. I’ll go and speak to the dean.’
He walked away. Adrian liked him already, which was a relief.
Adrian and Imogen made their way upstairs and knocked on the door to the psychology professor Gillian Mitchell’s office, but there was no response. The hallways started to fill with students getting to their morning lectures. There was a lot of mumbling; news of the murder had obviously got around. They knocked again.
‘Can I help you?’ A
