Steps to Heaven: A Sgt Major Crane Novel Read Online Free Page B

in the office by 08.00 studying the incident board. As he requested, everyone was in place by 09.00 hours ready to go through the reports.
    Major Martin, an army officer who took up a position as pathologist at the nearby Frimley Park Hospital on his retirement from the forces, gave his report first. He was greatly respected by Crane and other members of the Branch, who did everything they could to ensure the Major dealt with any post mortems they had an interest in.
    “Right, well,” the Major began. “I can confirm that all three died by knife wound to the throat, made by a right handed man and that the cuts were consistent with the blade found in Solomon’s hand. The times of death, although very close together, indicated that Mrs Crooks died first, followed by her son and then Solomon. All this is consistent with murder and then suicide. None of the three had any health problems and the initial toxicology reports were clean. There was no alcohol in either Lance Corporal Crooks’ blood, or his wife’s. None had any fatal illnesses. Crooks was healthy, as one would expect.”
    “So you found nothing physical that could have caused Crooks to behave in such a way?” Crane asked.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Oh, I don’t know, a brain tumour or something, anything.” Crane rubbed his scar.
    “Sorry, Crane, I can’t help you there. You’re clutching at straws. If there was an illness behind this behaviour, I would have to say it was psychological not physical and even though I’m good, I’m not God. I can’t see from his brain what his last thoughts were.”
    Amid good natured chuckling, Crane said, “Thank you for your report and for coming along to give it personally, sir. Right then, let’s hear from Sergeant Smith.”
    The room stilled as Smith moved to the front of the room. “Well, sir,” he addressed Crane, “the Major’s opinion of murder and then suicide was borne out by the forensic evidence. The blood splatter was consistent with arterial spray and the finger prints found in the kitchen match all three victims. Other prints found in the house are too smudged to be identified, the house having been recently cleaned. The blood at the scene has been identified as belonging to all three victims. No other blood type has been found. Solomon had blood on his clothes from his wife and also his son. Only the boy had Solomon’s blood on him, consistent with Solomon killing his wife first, and then the boy and finally committing suicide. From the drag marks in the blood near Mrs Crooks, it is presumed she tried to reach the garage door, but failed. The footprints found in her blood matched the boots worn by Lance Corporal Crooks.” Smith paused and shuffled his papers before continuing. “All the rooms in the house have been examined and we found that all windows in the house had been locked, together with the front door. The door to the garage was closed and locked. The door to the garden was open when I arrived on the scene.”
    “Anything else we should know about?”
    “Only trace evidence, sir. We found something on his trousers. But I’m not sure what it is yet. I’m still waiting to hear from the lab.”
    “What sort of trace?” Crane was impatient. He hated having to wait for the results of forensic tests. Any trace evidence could be highly important and give them further leads, but the trouble was it took several days for the findings to be analysed. Crane fantasised about the labs in the American CSI programmes, but knew that in reality, results take days or weeks, not hours.
    “Small grains of two different substances,” Sergeant Smith explained. “I’ll let you know as soon as we get the results.”
    “DI Anderson, anything you want to add?”
    The policeman shook his head. “Not at this stage, Crane. It looks as if it’s fairly clear cut. So unless there’s anything else, I’ll see you at the inquest.” Anderson stood and collected his jacket and briefcase, both of which