Chapter 5

The pile of stacked interrogation reports were slowly moving from the left-hand side of Sydney’s desk to the almost empty right-hand side. Laura wanted to assist him in sorting out all the details, but she was fearful he might consider it more of “interference” with his slow-moving deduction processes rather than the help he desperately needed, yet she was reasonably certain he would be far too reticent to ask for assistance of that nature no matter how dire the circumstances.

The perplexed investigator was still in “early days” in his manner of thinking despite the pressure from the central headquarters to “get the damned Land Army Girl thing off the board”. In actuality, they really didn’t have all that many verifiable homicides in the region due the vacuum left by droves of young hot-blooded males being shipped off to training depots and safely in the hands of the military authorities.

Laura made a list on the blackboard of the single words that Sydney underlined on the reports. It didn’t make much sense to the uninformed reader, but she was beginning to sense a pattern to the words that painted a picture of the unfortunate incident and gave the impression that there was not much hope for the missing girl’s future.

The stack of rough yellow writing pads were formatted in the proper order of interrogation particulars according to the police procedures manual and every one of the interrogators had used the darker lead pencils that made it easier to read on the cheaply produced paper. Of course, the constables used their ink-filled pens for writing in their little notepads when on the actual scene because the pointed pencils were a bit too dangerous to be having in pockets when running after a miscreant evader attempting escape from the long arms of the law. Laura was more than proficient in keeping the dozens of pencils nicely sharpened for the interrogation process and she also made them available for witnesses when they were submitting “statements” concerning their involvement in various incidents that needed explanation.

She thought it a bit strange that all of the recruited interrogators were men because it seemed to her that females were often more exacting in garnering specific details that were often overlooked by men eager to conclude another report. It was also noticeable to her that the older retired gents were more likely to spend more time around the teapot than sitting down across from a witness posing a pertinent question.

Even though she had not had what one could call a “fine” education, Laura was astute enough to know when there were huge “loopholes” in a constable’s questions and she was tempted more than once to offer her advice but thought better of it because she was still in her early twenties and the male interrogators were asking questions before she was born.

She wished she could buy some of the big erasers in the village supply store.

Hardly any of the pencils had any erasers remaining and she tried to convince the desk sergeant it was important enough to warrant opening the cash box and spending some of the “fines paid” money for a fresh supply. He laughed at her youthful extravagance and told her that all they had to do was draw a line through it and carry on just like police officers had done long before them. In a sense, she understood his frugality because she had been brought up in an impoverished household and “made do” when all else failed.

Her mind went back to the shiny object she had found on the ground in the bogus crime scene. Now that they were certain the actual scene of the crime was at an entirely different location, such collected evidence seemed a bit unnecessary because it might not have anything to do with the victim or the crime.

The little paper envelope holding the bauble was open and she slid the item out without touching it because it seemed like a good idea not to contaminate it until they knew exactly what it was and why it was on the ground next to the missing girl’s last worn clothing. She saw now that the wide end had a circular glassine surface that was a designed enhancer making objects viewed under it to be much larger than they actually were. It was a sort of magnifying glass used to make a letter or a word more readable in the event it was smudged or partially hidden. It was the type of tool that a newsman or an investigator would use. The thought that it might have belonged to the murderer was enough to make Laura sick to her stomach and she fought of a rising wave of nausea by jumping on one foot just like she did in school when she was caught up in an anxiety attack.

She went to the chalk board and wrote the names of all the men interrogated thus far and she also put down those that had either been at the supposed crime scene or had visited the farm in the recent past. The thought crossed her mind that the magnifier could also be used to start a fire because her young brother had used one in the woods when he was camping and he was filled with stories of how difficult it was to start a fire unless you knew exactly what you were doing. He told her that the power of the Sun, the friction from any smooth surface rubbed just right and the ignition from a flint-like rock could all start a fire without benefit of either match or flame. The Sun shining thru that magnifier was powerful enough to start a blaze in a way that was impossible to discern as probable arson of the planned variety.

Laura and DCI Griffin sorted out the notes from the interrogations.

She and another girl from the main station took turns typing up the lengthy reports in duplicate using the carbon paper that they got from the war office. It was in short supply and they had to use it over and over again until the words were difficult to read on the copy. The girl’s name was Mary and she was a shy one with a queen-sized crush on DCI Griffin and too naïve to know how to go about such things as she was only nineteen. Laura was not overly jealous of her and the fact she worked in the same small office as Sydney because she had the most dreadful set of braces she had ever seen and they made her seem like Frankenstein’s Bride with pretty lips but a mouth filled with metal.

The girl also needed to shave her legs badly because she was of genetic background that had the females sprouting dark hair from her ankles to her belly button. She was able to hide the sight wearing the long police standard issue female slacks but the braces were smack dab in the middle of her face and there was no way she could hide them without refusing to say a single word or never smiling even when everyone was laughing at some joke.