Read Online The Red Herring by Sally Spencer - Free Book Online

conscious – but she wasn’t. There’s a bump the size of a duck egg on the back of her head.’
    â€˜Any idea of what was used to hit her?’
    â€˜More than an idea. It was a brick. An Accrington red brick, I’d say, though that’s really up to your forensic boys to establish for certain. We found traces of it embedded in her skull.’
    A brick! Paniatowski thought in disgust. Not a Papuan headhunter’s axe or stonemason’s hammer, but a bloody brick!
    And how many of them were there lying around in Lancashire, just waiting for murderers searching for a suitable blunt instrument? Millions!
    â€˜What else have you got?’ she asked.
    â€˜She wasn’t killed where she was found. From the bruising which occurred after death, I’d say she’d been driven there, probably sitting in an upright position. Now that’s a grizzly thought, isn’t it?’
    Very grizzly. Paniatowski lit up one of her own cigarettes and inhaled deeply. ‘Time of death?’ she asked.
    â€˜Sometime between eleven last night and one o’clock this morning. She last had something to eat at around six o’clock. A cheese sandwich liberally smeared with sweet pickle.’
    â€˜Anything else in her stomach?’
    â€˜She’d been drinking shortly before she died.’
    â€˜To excess?’
    â€˜Depends what you’d call excessive, Monika. Three or four gin and tonics, which probably wouldn’t have that much effect on somebody with her build and general fitness. What I can’t really tell you is whether she had them
before
–or whether she had them
after
!’
    â€˜Before or after what?’
    â€˜Oh, didn’t I mention that?’ the doctor said, sounding surprised. ‘She had sexual intercourse sometime during the course of the evening.’
    At the mention of sex, Paniatowski noticed, the uniformed constable in the corner of the room ran his eyes quickly up and down her body, then sniggered to himself. She could easily imagine what he would tell his mates when he was back in the canteen.
    â€˜An’ when the doc mentioned sex, Sergeant Panties shivered all over. You can tell she’s cryin’ out for it herself.’
    â€˜Is something the matter, Monika?’ asked Pierson, who’d clearly missed the constable’s reaction. ‘You surely weren’t expecting her to still be a virgin, were you? Not in this day and age? Not now there’s the miracle birth-control pill so freely available?’
    The constable sniggered again, no doubt refining the story he would recount later. Paniatowski decided to ignore him.
    â€˜No, I wasn’t expecting her to be a virgin,’ she told the doctor. ‘Not particularly, anyway. What about the sex? She wasn’t forced, was she?’
    â€˜Definitely not. It was consensual, and, I would say, it was also rather energetic.’
    The smirk on the constable’s face was widening by the second, and even when he saw that Paniatowski was looking straight at him, he made no attempt to hide it.
    â€˜Would you mind coming over here for a second or two, Constable?’ Paniatowski asked.
    â€˜Me?’
    â€˜You’re the only constable I can see in this room.’
    The man stepped hesitantly forward, but stopped when he was still a fair distance from the table. He was perhaps a couple of years younger than Paniatowski, and his air of superiority – which he probably thought it was natural for a man to feel in the presence of a mere woman – was rapidly draining from his face.
    â€˜Yes, Sergeant?’ he said.
    â€˜Is this the first autopsy you’ve attended?’ Paniatowski asked.
    â€˜Well, yes,’ the constable admitted.
    â€˜Then come a little closer,’ Paniatowski said. ‘I don’t think you can see things clearly from where you’re standing.’
    The constable took another tentative step.
    â€˜Now, as you can