hit and run involving his parents. As she had left the pub Grace had made a mental note to ring him later in the afternoon to check how his parents were getting on and to update him on the murder enquiry.
As she perched herself on the corner of her desk ready to feed her information into the morning’s briefing she remembered she still hadn’t made that call; it had completely slipped her mind because of her workload.
I’ll text him straight after briefing, she reminded herself.
She cleared her throat, picked up the replica murder weapon that had been lying on the desk beside her and began her input.
“A bagh nakh.” She held up the knife with its curved angled blade and two brass knuckles fixed into the hilt. Behind her pinned to the incident board were the scenes of crime photo of the weapon, which had been recovered with the girl’s body. Her replica was an identical match to the killing instrument on the photograph.
“An Indian hand-to-hand weapon designed to fit over the knuckles or concealed under and against the palm. This is a variant of the traditional weapon that consisted of four or five curved blades and is designed to slash through skin and muscle, mimicking wounds inflicted by a wild animal. As a matter of interest the bagh nakh features in many of the kid’s video games they play these days. It was originally developed primarily for self-defence, but in this case, as we know, it was used to attack and slit the throat of our young murder victim.” She explained how they had got hold of the replica. “Unfortunately even though this is a strange knife to our eyes amongst the Asian population it is not. There are a number of outlets for this weapon both in this country and abroad and at this moment in time we are unable to find out who purchased one. However the detective superintendent in his TV appeal will be showing this to see if it will jog anyone’s memory.” Grace placed the knife beside her on the table and went on to explain that they still had no positive identification of the body. She told them how she had gone back into the National Missing Persons database but such was the putrefied state of their victim that it was hampering the search parameters, and despite the DNA database having some six million indexes and the National Fingerprint Database having eight million individuals they still had no trace. “We can only hope that the Super’s TV broadcast will give us a lead,” she finished and dropped down off the edge of the desk and returned to her seat so that DS Gamble from the other team could finish off the mornings briefing.
Mark Gamble took over Grace’s place in front of the incident boards. Clutched in his right hand was his rolled up bundle of notes from the previous day’s actions though he never opened them as he addressed the detectives. Tapping them on the side of his thigh he picked up where Grace left off, running through yesterday’s day long footslogging visits to the traditional Asian carpet stores in Bradford. He explained that two members of his team had eventually tracked down rugs of a similar make and design to a warehouse store on an industrial unit on the outskirts of the city. Shipping receipts held by the owner identified they were part of a large consignment from the Punjab Province of Pakistan. They had pressed the owner to narrow down the location where they had been made but he had been unable to give a precise area. He had told them that many of the rugs were crafted in small factories and family homes to an ordered design which would be picked up on a weekly basis and delivered to a warehouse by the docks. Dozens of villages would be involved in one single design; it was impossible to pinpoint where the rug their body had been bound in had been made. Detective Sergeant Gamble paused, but only momentarily as though gathering his thoughts. He swapped his bundle of notes to his left hand and continued.
“We also had the task of gathering any CCTV
As she perched herself on the corner of her desk ready to feed her information into the morning’s briefing she remembered she still hadn’t made that call; it had completely slipped her mind because of her workload.
I’ll text him straight after briefing, she reminded herself.
She cleared her throat, picked up the replica murder weapon that had been lying on the desk beside her and began her input.
“A bagh nakh.” She held up the knife with its curved angled blade and two brass knuckles fixed into the hilt. Behind her pinned to the incident board were the scenes of crime photo of the weapon, which had been recovered with the girl’s body. Her replica was an identical match to the killing instrument on the photograph.
“An Indian hand-to-hand weapon designed to fit over the knuckles or concealed under and against the palm. This is a variant of the traditional weapon that consisted of four or five curved blades and is designed to slash through skin and muscle, mimicking wounds inflicted by a wild animal. As a matter of interest the bagh nakh features in many of the kid’s video games they play these days. It was originally developed primarily for self-defence, but in this case, as we know, it was used to attack and slit the throat of our young murder victim.” She explained how they had got hold of the replica. “Unfortunately even though this is a strange knife to our eyes amongst the Asian population it is not. There are a number of outlets for this weapon both in this country and abroad and at this moment in time we are unable to find out who purchased one. However the detective superintendent in his TV appeal will be showing this to see if it will jog anyone’s memory.” Grace placed the knife beside her on the table and went on to explain that they still had no positive identification of the body. She told them how she had gone back into the National Missing Persons database but such was the putrefied state of their victim that it was hampering the search parameters, and despite the DNA database having some six million indexes and the National Fingerprint Database having eight million individuals they still had no trace. “We can only hope that the Super’s TV broadcast will give us a lead,” she finished and dropped down off the edge of the desk and returned to her seat so that DS Gamble from the other team could finish off the mornings briefing.
Mark Gamble took over Grace’s place in front of the incident boards. Clutched in his right hand was his rolled up bundle of notes from the previous day’s actions though he never opened them as he addressed the detectives. Tapping them on the side of his thigh he picked up where Grace left off, running through yesterday’s day long footslogging visits to the traditional Asian carpet stores in Bradford. He explained that two members of his team had eventually tracked down rugs of a similar make and design to a warehouse store on an industrial unit on the outskirts of the city. Shipping receipts held by the owner identified they were part of a large consignment from the Punjab Province of Pakistan. They had pressed the owner to narrow down the location where they had been made but he had been unable to give a precise area. He had told them that many of the rugs were crafted in small factories and family homes to an ordered design which would be picked up on a weekly basis and delivered to a warehouse by the docks. Dozens of villages would be involved in one single design; it was impossible to pinpoint where the rug their body had been bound in had been made. Detective Sergeant Gamble paused, but only momentarily as though gathering his thoughts. He swapped his bundle of notes to his left hand and continued.
“We also had the task of gathering any CCTV
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