I am not lonely [Mystrade]

CHAPTER 102 : Discovery

The detective stretched his arms over his head and let out a huge  yawn. For some unknown reason he had had a very poor night and despite  the fact it was only 10 AM he was already feeling tired and the prospect  of a couple of cold case and piling up paperwork was nothing to  motivate him. He took a look by the window only to witness the grey,  cloudy sky and sighed. He thought that he'd better get on with his dull  work if he didn't wanted  to have on top of all the rest, to do overtime when he heard someone  knocking on his door. The curtain being pulled over the large  glass-walls of hi study he couldn't see who it was, but ready to take  any excuses not to immerse himself in the paperwork, he sat back  properly on his chair and yelled to the person knocking to enter.
"Hey  Greg, sorry to disturb you but Camden's station just called us. They've  got a case of probable murder that they need us to investigate." Sally  stated, from the door.
"Any other details ?" wondered the policeman, repressing a smile at the idea of finally having a new case.
"No,  they still are trying to gather the first informations. They asked us  to join them at the station for a briefing then they'll show us to the  place." denied the young woman as her boss was jumping on his feet and  grabbing his coat and car key.
"Ok, let's go and let's hope it's not a suicide or an accident." nodded the yarder, making his way to the lifts.
"Greg, you can't say that ..." his adjunct chuckled lightly.
"Well,  there is definitely a body, it's not like if I have wished for someone  to be dead. I'd just want it to be my division rather than being called  for nothing ..." laughed the inspector, pushing the lift's button.

An  hour later, he would have given pretty much anything for having  mistaking when hoping it was a murder. He just had been briefed by the  head of the Camden station about the case which turned to be the death  of a six months old infant and from the first report he had had, he  already wanted to puck, so was Donovan who had gone quite pale at the  announcement of the age of the victim.
Apparently one of the  neighbours of the young mother of the deceased child had phoned the  ambulance earlier in the morning, concerned by the sounds she was hearing  from the mum's flat and when the medical team had arrived to the flat,  they only had been able to note the child's death and to call the local  station to open an investigation about the circumstances of the baby's  death.
The first officers on the scene had managed to take away the  two other children and handled them to the social services as well as  having the mother admitted to hospital in shock state. They then had  phoned Gregory's unit as soon as they had stepped toe inside the flat  were the death infant was supposed to have been find in, from what the  two Scotland Yard official had been said and were now on their way to  witness for themselves, the place left only very few doubts about a  severe neglecting of the children.
These suspicions were, in the  yarder's eyes, confirmed as soon as he himself stepped a foot into the  flat. The first thing he noticed even before being properly inside was  the overwhelming smell and when entering the place he could only notice  the state of mess and the flies flying in every rooms. He wondered how someone could possibly agree to live here, not to mention with three kids under the age of four.
Not  being equipped for extensive researched on the location and not able to  stand more of this horrific vision, Sally and Greg exited the flat with  the strong sentiment that this was sadly their division. Awaiting the  forensics expert to arrive, they decided to proceed to a neighbourhood  investigation with a couple of local constable to try to determine when  the child had been seen for the last time and if anyone had noticed  anything odd these last days.
They parted in two teams, the two  detective paring with one constable each and Greg knocked on the first  door on the ground floor while his colleague was starting on the top  floor. A woman in her thirties opened the door nearly instantly, a  little girl in her arms.
"Good morning ma'am, sorry for disturbing  you. DI Lestrade from Scotland Yard and PC Miller from Camden police  station, we would like to ask you a few questions, have you got a minute  ?" the detective attempted to smile, only achieving a weird grin, his  face refusing to show happiness after what he just had witnessed.
"Yes  sure, just a minute, I'm going to put Jess in her playpen, I'll be  right back." nodded the young mother before disappearing for a second.
"Are all the flat on the same layout ?" the detective asked his colleague while the woman was away.
"I  think so, yeah. I mean I've never been to this estate precisely but  it's quite a common thing in the area to have this kind of standardised  building." replied the younger man with a little pout.
"It's about  the thing with the ambulance this morning, isn't it ?" wondered the lady  when coming back, her arms free of her daughter, the little girl's  giggles clearly hearable in the background.
"Yes."  nodded Greg. "We are investigating an incident that had happened in a  flat of the second floor. Do you know Mrs Golding by any chance ?"
"I  won't say that I know her but I've seen her around yeah. Say hello,  this kind of stuff, but nothing more really. Is it something to do with  her ?" responded the young woman.
"Yes. When have you seen her or her  children for the last time ?" continued the young constable, taking  notes of what his interlocutor had just said.
"Hmm... I don't know,  three or four days ago maybe. In the summer I used to see her in the  park with her kids but since it's winter, I suppose we don't go out as  much." the mother tried to remember. "What have happened ?"
"We have  good reason to believe that her youngest child died in suspicious  circumstances." the detective answered. "How were the children when you  last seen them ? Did they look in good health ?"
"Oh my god ... But he  wasn't more than what, maybe six months ... That's horrible ..." exclaimed  the lady. "Well, last time I've seen them they were looking fine, but  it's difficult to say, behind their big winter coats. The baby was in a  pram. He was crying but she didn't seemed  to pay too much attention to his scream, like if he had been screaming  for a long time and that she wasn't able to calm him. I just thought  that he was probably hungry and that she was heading back home to feed  him. She seemed in a rush, a little, so you know, I didn't really paid much more attention ... Oh my god ..."
"Well,  thank you very much for the help you've provided us. We may come back  later if we have anything else to ask." Gregory nodded, still unable to  smile. "Sorry again for disturbing you."
"No problem officers and  good luck. Oh my god I can't believe it ..." replied the woman before  closing the door while the two men were moving to the next door.
Less  than an hour later, they were back before the investigated flat's door,  having asked every present inhabitant of the block about what they knew  about the young mother. A clear portrait seemed to emerged, both from  the people Greg had questioned and from those Sally had been asking  about the mother's behaviour changing during the fall and the children  becoming more and more visibly neglected, skinnier and smeller according  to some people, and the yelling and screams becoming more often during  the winter, statements that seemed to corroborate what the police officers were suspecting about the child being neglected and possibly starved.
They were still discussing the different results of their  interviews when Anderson and a forensics specialized in flies and  larvae's life cycle arrived with their equipment. Sporting white  overalls and masks, Sally, Greg and the two experts entered the flat,  taking care not to step on any of the numerous objects and wastes spread  over the floor.
Donovan took up the task of taking as many pictures  of the place as possible to have something on which to rely during the  investigation and the possible trial while her boss followed the  forensics to the baby and mother's bedroom were the baby had been found  dead several hours earlier.
Despite the scene having been  contaminated by the paramedics who had tried to give the infant the  first aids before transporting him to the hospital and aknowledging his  death, the room was showing clear signs of not having been cleaned for  many weeks. The moose's basket were the baby had most probably been  sleeping was looking so filthy that the detective wondered how anyone  could have been sadistic or fool enough to let a baby sleep in these  conditions. As the flies and larvae's specialist approached the basket  he instantly remarked the presence of a set of developing larvae in the filthy blankets and in a milk bottle that was hidden in between it.
It  wasn't the first time the inspector witnessed a flat in this kind of  state but the fact that three children not older than his own son could  be living there was overtaking him. The two other kids room was in no  better state, the mattress being disposed directly on the floor, mouldy  food wastes and even snippets of sharp glass surrounding the beds even  if no larvae were to be found in the room.
They hadn't search half of  the rooms but they already had filled a huge amount of evidence bags  and they had had to ask one of the junior constables that were guarding  the door to go fetch some more at the nearby station.
If the smell had already been overwhelming  in the other rooms, the kitchen was nearly insufferable despite the  mask. Anderson opened the fridge, exposing a couple of box of raw food  that could have looked like rice under the heavy thickness of mould and two pints of all fat decayed milk. If there was one thing  Greg was sure about, it was that this flat was in no mean fit for a  child, not even to talk about an infant and when leaving the place, the  smell clinging on him, he wondered once more how someone could have left  a child living in this kind of environment, the image of Alden dancing  in front of his eyes.