The sound of sirens notifies me that I was at my destination. I hopped out of my black Kingswood and trudged through the dark pebbles of Trench Hood beach, until I arrived at the yellow police rope. I swung my head under the tape.
“Officer Shirley, the body’s over there.” Ms Turner, one of the forensics, pointed me over to a group of men.
I made my way over to them.
“What do you have for me?” I placed my hands in my pockets and looked through the men.
“Ahhh, Shirley. What called you here? I thought you were on holiday.” Henry Turner asked, a large man with a deep voice, my oldest buddy.
“Duty calls.”
“It was Brines, wasn’t it? He’s always calling you out on your vacation.”
“Nah, don’t worry. This is my case anyway, I should be dealing with it. I’m glad he could even bother to include me.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re here.” He patted me on the back and stood aside for me to see the remains. “Emma rose, female, Caucasian, late thirties. Fisherman found here late last night.”
I nodded and took a closer look.
“Was she found like this?”
“Yup. Haven’t touched her since the squints came.”
“I bet they tried to take on the case by themselves again.”
“You know it. They’ve always wanted this one. The mysterious masked man strikes again. It does have a good ring to it.”
“Do we know how she got here?” I lifted up one of the arms.
“Nope. She just appeared.”
I nodded.
“Hey! Don’t contaminate the specimen.” John Travers, another forensic officer, came running towards us with his arms flailing.
“I wasn’t.” I let go of the arm and stood up.
“Hey, where’re you goin’?” Turner asked.
“Back to HQ. I got a notification that there’s a suspect. Gonna check ‘em out.” I turned and began walking back to my car.
“We still on for tonight?” Turner called after me.
“Sure.” I raised my hand at him, not turning around.
I got in my Kingswood and drove off.
***
I arrived at HQ and parked my car. Swiping my card, I entered the building.
