Trophies: a gripping detective thriller (The Wakefield Series Book 1) by David Evans Page A

page.
    “Right, I’m off to bed.” Jean collected the empty glasses. “I’ll see you tomorrow sometime.”
    “Yeah, good-night.” He could hear the glasses being deposited in the kitchen, then her footsteps on the stairs. Turning the paper over, he scanned through the murder report. He’d read the morning edition and knew what had been reported there. He ended up reading it twice. He was satisfied that what Jean had told him wasn’t on general release. And that interested him more than anything.
     

17
     
     
     
    The hubbub of noise from a dozen different conversations died away to a few whispered comments as Strong entered the Incident Room.
    “O.K. everyone, we’re in day two of this enquiry, let’s bring ourselves up to speed. Kelly?”
    Stainmore stood up in front of a large white-board with photos of the victim and the murder scene attached. “First of all,” she began, “the official PM on Williams confirms death caused by the severe injuries to the victim’s face and head. Next, he was discovered, as you can see here,” pointing to one of the photos, “face up on the bed. We believe the attack took place in the living room, as evidenced by the blood found on the floor here and the spatter on the wall here.” She leaned over and indicated two more pictures on the board. “Because of the severity of the injuries, it would have been impossible for the victim to have crawled there himself. So, we believe the perpetrator placed our victim on the bed in the position found. Another interesting fact is that the flat appears to have been thoroughly cleaned. According to the post mortem, Williams had been dead for between four and six weeks; that puts time of death anywhere between December the 6 th and the 20 th . Now, we can narrow that down a little bit further because a neighbour confirmed a sighting of him on the stairs on the morning of the 9 th and from the post behind the door, probably before the 13 th .”
    “That’s right,” John Darby added, “uniform reported the same witness also spotted him on the evening of the 8 th carrying a television up the stairs. Thought nothing of it, apparently. He was always carting a TV, video or other piece of electrical gear around. Also, the last transaction on his cards took place on the 9 th .”
    “Trevor,” Strong asked, “any joy on Williams’ transport?”
    “A Ford Escort van, guv. Parked round the back of the flats. It was empty but Forensic are giving it a going over now.”
    Strong sought out Kirkland. “Sam, anything on the lock-up front or are we saying Williams stored his ill-gotten gains in the flat?”
    “Nothing yet, but we’re still checking.”
    Strong turned to Ormerod at the back of the room. “Luke, what have you got on Williams’ known associates?”
    “Page three on the notes, guv.”
    He flicked over the pages of notes that all officers had been issued with and began skimming the names on the third page. “Some neighbour mentioned visitors, didn’t they? Have we been able to identify any of them from this list?”
    “I’ll be on with that this morning.”
    “What about the prints found in Williams’ flat? Any positive ID so far?”
    “Uniform are delighted that none were down to them,” Kirkland stated, causing a ripple of hilarity to spread through the ensemble. “However, on the door handles we got some lovely examples belonging to one Kenny Stocks.”
    “Kenny Stocks, eh?” Strong repeated quietly. Stocks was well known at the station. He had previous convictions for theft, breaking and entering as well as possession of cannabis. Not particularly bright, he was the type to be easily influenced. Strong thumbed through the notes again. “He doesn’t appear on the list of Williams’ known associates.”
    “We don’t think he was,” Ormerod said.
    “Well let’s wheel him in, then, and see what he has to say for himself. All right, Kelly, carry on.”
    Stainmore moved over to an adjacent board where the