Anonymous

2 - The Calling Card

"Detective! What has happened here? Is it true someone was murdered?" She didn't even give Harriet a moment to breathe before questions were fired. The camera flitted from King to Murray and back again. Neither detective answered, they kept their faces emotionless and just continued up towards the front door.

"Why won't any officers comment on this tragedy? Should we as citizens be scared?"

Harriet huffed as Jason held the crime scene tape up for her and followed her through the barrier.

"Bloody pests they are." She said, motioning her head to the news team that were once again seated at their van. They obviously weren't stupid enough to try to come past the official police tape. Jason nodded in agreement and flipped his badge to the guarding officer. He moved aside to let them into the house.

As soon as they entered the building, the stale stench of copper filled their nostrils. Looking around, there seemed nothing out of shape. What could only be assumed as Caroline Pollard's shoes and coats were still by the door as they had been left. The paintings along the hallway wall were still intact, so far there showed to be no sign of a struggle or break in.

"You must be Detective King and Detective Murray." A bald, slightly overweight gentleman came towards them from a side door. He held out a podgy hand. "I'm Officer Dickens." Jason took the hand and gave him a firm shake, discreetly wiping Officer Dickens' sweat on the back of his trousers afterwards. Harriet politely nodded at the officer.

"At your service."

"I don't know why you two wanted to come down here. After all, we've cleared most of the evidence up already, just working on the last bits now." He scratched his chin.

"Actually we know that, but we wanted to come and look at the scene itself for our investigation. We need all the information we can get right now." Harriet smiled softly, using her womanly ways to get what she wanted. Admittedly, it wasn't the best way to go about things, but it usually worked.

"Okay, it's through that door on the right. You'll see another officer in there, just explain I've given you permission."

Harriet nodded, said thank you and wandered off in the direction she had been given. Jason again flashed the badge at the officer in the living room and he motioned for them to go through.

The smell of copper mixed with sweat got stronger as they walked through the door. This was the dining room Harriet had seen in the pictures in the file. Everything was exactly the same, from the pictures on the wall to the plant pot in the corner. The chair was still in the exact same position and the blood had now dried to a musty brown colour. Jason pulled out two pairs of gloves and threw one to Harriet. Silently, they got to work.

Every nook and cranny was searched, no stone un-turned. The dining room was ripped to pieces and put back together. Samples of the dried blood were taken again, as well as the DNA on the cable ties. Harriet had even dug through the soil in the plant pot. But both detectives pulled up nothing.

"This is ridiculous." Harriet sighed.

"Tell me about it, there has to be something here that we've missed." Jason stood up from his crouched position in front of the chair Caroline Pollard had died in. Without warning, Officer Dickens walked into the room, a sandwich already half eaten, clutched in his chubby fingers.

"Have you checked the kitchen yet? That's where we reckon the killer came in because the front door was locked from the inside." Harriet's jaw almost dropped to the floor.

"Why didn't you tell us?!" Jason almost shouted. "We told you we needed everything on this case!"

Officer Dickens held his hands up in a defense position. "Not my job mate, you're the detectives."