Devil in the Detail by A.J. Cross (love letters to the dead .TXT) 📗

its rear doors standing open, its front doors removed and lying on mats nearby. Both front seats were occupied by white, featureless mannequins. ‘We reconstructed all of this from the crime scene photographs.’

They stood, eyes fixed on slender rods, some blue, others red, protruding from the mannequins. Chong pointed. ‘They’re made of aluminium. Hollow for lightness. The blue ones indicate the bullet trajectories for Michael Lawrence, the red for Molly. Come closer.’

They followed her to the rear of the car, where she indicated its dark, carpeted floor, one area marked by a bright yellow circle. ‘That’s where the recovered bullet casing was found, which suggests that the gunman wasn’t too concerned about removing evidence. The bullet from the sun visor has been recovered.’

They followed her to the front seats of the car. She pointed to the impaled mannequins. ‘You have the hospital’s reports on the Lawrences’ injuries. What we’ve set up here is a visual indication of what occurred inside this vehicle. Adam and I have checked the rods with an inclinometer, so we’re satisfied with their accuracy.’ They tracked her moving finger. ‘If you look to the mannequin representing Mike Lawrence, you’ll see a small black cross on the cheek, yes? That’s where the first bullet grazed his face then continued on before embedding itself in the sun visor immediately above his head.’

She placed her hand beneath the blank oval of the face. ‘You know from the post-mortem that the second bullet entered Mike Lawrence’s lower jaw close to his chin, continuing upwards and into his skull.’ They followed her to the car’s passenger side.

‘You’ll see from the position of these rods that the damage to Molly Lawrence was different. One bullet only, which entered low on her right side before exiting quickly and somewhat higher, as you can see from the rod’s rising trajectory. Forensics did a complete sweep of the car and also located that bullet.’

Traynor leaned forward, his eyes fixed on the inside of the car. He looked at its doors lying nearby. ‘That window was shattered from the inside?’

‘Yes. All the indications are that both victims were shot from the direction of the rear seat.’ She looked at each of them. ‘In case there are any doubts, I’ve attached a laser to each rod. Stand over there, please, while I activate them.’ They moved away, waited, seeing nothing. Chong turned to them.

‘This space is so useful for the kind of investigative work I’m showing you, but it’s very light.’ The door opened. ‘Ah, just the person.’ She grinned as Adam walked inside, one hand gripping an aerosol can.

‘Canned smoke,’ he said.

She took it from him and sprayed each of the rods. The laser beams lit up. She pointed to the centre of the rear seat. ‘See? This is where the rods more or less converge, showing us the likely location of the gunman.’ They stared down at it. ‘The covering material has been removed from the seats. Indications are that they were subjected to minimal use prior to this incident, which raises the possibility of finding trace evidence such as hair. Unfortunately, nothing to report so far.’

Watts walked around the vehicle and lowered his head. He looked at the front and back seats. He straightened. ‘I’m having trouble seeing Mike Lawrence just sitting there, his pregnant wife next to him when all of this kicked off.’

‘We give you the science,’ said Chong. ‘I’m afraid that’s an investigative question for you to answer.’

He looked at Adam. ‘Anything to report on the gun?’

Adam shook his head. ‘Not yet. We’ve requested specialist advice which we’re expecting at any time.’

Traynor walked around the car, his eyes moving slowly over it. ‘My reading of the situation is that Mike Lawrence remained in position as the gunman got inside the car.’ He regarded it for several seconds. ‘It’s very possible he was fearful of doing anything which might excite or antagonize him and place his wife at increased danger.’

‘Sounds plausible,’ said Watts.

Back in the office, they looked at the photographs of the mock-up which Chong had provided. Watts reached for one of them, showing the Mike Lawrence mannequin in its seat.

‘What you said downstairs, Traynor, about Mike Lawrence’s lack of action. It sounds to me like he was doing exactly what he should have done in that high-risk situation. In which case, why did it end with both of them being shot?’

Traynor passed other photographs to him. ‘A contained space. Stressed people. A gun. At this stage we can only speculate on what happened inside that car. The gunman might have anticipated a challenge from Lawrence, misconstrued a sudden movement or tone of voice from either of them and believed that he was under threat.’

‘A nervy attacker.’ Watts thought about it. ‘Somebody unused to handling a gun?’ He looked at Judd. ‘Remember the victim of the last November carjacking? Maybe that was some kind of practice run to give her attacker an idea how to extend his repertoire.’

Traynor’s brows rose. ‘There’s nothing in any of those victim-witness statements which categorically confirms the existence of a gun. You already know my doubts of a link between those attacks and what happened to the Lawrences.’

‘There’s also still a lot we don’t know. When Molly Lawrence is ready to talk, hopefully she’ll clarify exactly what did happen. We’re clueless as to how their attacker got them to stop their car.’ He looked up as Traynor stood. ‘Any plans for the rest of the day?’

‘I’ve a couple of lectures to deliver, following which I’ll be giving some thought to the best way to approach my first meeting with Molly Lawrence to obtain maximum information about what happened to her and her husband. I also need to consider the forensic information now available from their car, including the absence of external damage.’ He stood. ‘I’ll be here at eleven thirty tomorrow with my perceptions.’

Watts watched him go. Here at … with my perceptions. Socially, Traynor was great company. When it came to his work, he was