Page 77 of Night Call


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Duncan hopped up from his position on a metal stool and pointed his fingers. “Dual wielding,” he said, pretending to shoot at Pember. “Call me Dante.”

He stopped when Chichi glared at him.

They all grimaced when she cut into the stomach. The sickly sweet stench of alcohol and stomach acid came flooding out, trickling down the grooves in the aluminium table and into a bucket on the floor. Duncan caught some of the contents in a tub, quickly sealing it and placing it on the side.

Smoothing a hand over the gelatinous organ, Chichi hummed and ran a scalpel through it. “Hm? Just what on earth had our man been drinking?” she said, catching some of the liquid in her hand and sniffing it. “Anti-freeze? It’s bright blue.”

Mark laughed. “Looks like one of those Lapis Blasts all the uni students are raving about. Tequila, Curacao and some other shit that probably gives you cancer.”

“A cocktail?” Pember asked.

“Yeah, cost you nine quid a pop in the Essex Arms. Don’t know who the fuck they think they are selling cocktails.”

Chichi tutted and continued. “There’s multiple hard foreign bodies present within the stomach,” she said, plucking something out from within the folds of the organ. She held it up to the light. “Ah, his teeth.”

Pember wasn’t particularly squeamish, but he wasn’t ashamed to admit that he felt positively sick in that moment.

“His central and lateral incisors, if I were to guess,” Chichi continued. “But you’ll need a dental specialist to confirm.”

Pember grimaced and covered his mouth. “What about his fangs? Weren’t they knocked out?”

Chichi nodded, rummaging around a bit more. “Not that I can find.”

“So what the fuck happened to them?” Mark cut in. “Taken out? Spat out?”

Chichi shrugged. “You’ll have to go back to your crime scene. Have another look.”

Mark’s attention snapped to Pember and Duncan. “I thought you combed every inch of those woods?”

Duncan held up a hand. “We did, along withyourcolleagues from Major Crime.”

Mark’s face pulled into a snarl.

“But what I will say,” Chichi continued, eyes flicking between the two of them. “Is that it appeared to be a front-facing hit, and I’d have expected him to swallowmost,if notallof his damaged teeth. Especially if he was knocked unconscious or died quickly after. The mouth structures go all floppy and… Anyway, shall we continue?”

They worked quickly to take more histology samples, and Pember found that Duncan was actually far more efficient than Maya ever gave him credit for. When his head was in the game, he was a true professional.

“The adrenal gland is normal, no indication of any adverse effects, though bloods will confirm,” Chichi said, holding the organ out so Pember could fasten it into a plastic pot.

Mark sighed. “Maybe we don’t have a serial killer on our hands after all. Just a couple of crackheads going around attacking people at night.”

Pember pressed his mouth into a hard line, because something told him that wasn’t the case at all

Clutching a cooler full of samples, Pember held open the door to the police station and stepped inside with Duncan. Reception was empty, save for Wallace and Samantha hunched over her mobile phone.

Wallace’s head snapped up. “Ah! There you are! Anything?”

They both nodded, glancing at one another with knowing smiles.

“Well come on, lads. Don’t keep us in suspense,” Samantha called. “You solved it yet?”

Pember frowned. “I thought you were only interested in neighbourhood disputes?”

“And I thought you had two sugars in your coffee, but lately you’ve been favouring sweeteners. What’s your point?”

Pember scoffed and took a step back. “Well, I… You… What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Nothing, just get to the fucking point.”