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Seven days later
Grouped around the table in the quiet room, coffee and teapot either end, Thurstan munched a digestive biscuit and began the briefing.
“Right, Derek, for those who are not aware, bring us up to speed.”
Degsy shuffled his papers, buying time for him to swallow the remains of his custard cream. A sip of coffee and: “Ok, first, the girl on the beach. We’ve now identified her as Lina Bartkutė, a Lithuanian national who’s been in the UK for the past eleven months.
“Originally, she was working in a supermarket but it seems she made some contacts here that led her into drugs and prostitution. Ident has been made by one of the other girls she was friendly with but formally it will have to be made by the parents. They’re being flown in this week.”
He paused for another sip. “The Boss received some info from a reliable confidential source that helped us ‘open up’ one or two of the street girls into confirming they’re being run by two Albanian brothers. They’d taken a particular fancy to Lina of late. Further info in this respect is on your info sheets.” He looked at his DS, Alison Murphy. “Spud, do you want to cover the post mortem issues or shall I?”
“I’m ok with it.” She smiled back and looked at the others. “Right. Keeping it as brief as possible, cause of death, manual strangulation from the front. It would seem there was consensual sexual intercourse, both vaginal and anal because there’s no bruising, etcetera, to indicate otherwise but she had taken amphetamine and the pathologist reckons she’d have been quite high. He also recovered sperm samples from both orifices and they’ve been profiled. We don’t have a DNA match but we do know that two people were involved in her death. The pathologist has put forward the scenario that she was being given double penetration when the one whose semen was found in her vagina decided to strangle her. Erotic asphyxiation, sadomasochism or, perhaps, she started to scream? We don’t know. However, we’ve sent the DNA profile off to the Albanian Police for them to check against their database, such as it is, but don’t hold your breath.” She placed her pen on her papers and crossed her hands on the desk.
“Thanks, Spud.” Degsy noticed more coffee being poured at the end of the table and passed his cup along before continuing:
“Donny Mostyn! Cause of death? Well, that was the bullet in the centre of his forehead. Everything else was done for show and confusion. Again, the Boss got some reliable info. The word is it wasn’t local, but, naturally, we’ll keep an open mind. The bottom line is we think it’s Nickson again and that’s why this briefing has been limited to those in the know.
“In the meantime, the Matrix is hitting several carefully selected targets, former ‘colleagues’ and people known to have had disputes with Mostyn, that sort of thing. It’s a good excuse and it keeps them on their toes. I should have more on that for you tomorrow,” He sat back and received his drink.
Thurstan downed the remnants of his tea and declined a refill. “Thank you, Derek and Alison. Now! Let’s get down to specific enquiries and get those boxes ticked...”