Blunt suffered a troubled night beset with nightmares of a dead and decomposing Anjii running towards him and away from a knife carrying Rafique Khan with a niquab over his arm. He awoke on several occasions with a dry mouth and drenched in sweat. Each time he took a swig of the bottle of water he kept on his bedside table.
He started the day his mind suffused with feelings of remorse for Anjii and feelings of revenge towards Rafique Khan. Not exactly the best of moods in which to start a new unit. Or to determine whether several murders fell within the purview of the new unit.
His team would no doubt be pounding the pavements attempting to determine whether anyone in the Asian business community had seen or knew the man and woman in the photofits.
He assumed that was the case when he arrived at headquarters and none of his team were in their small office. No sooner had he sat down at his desk than he received a call from the fire investigator.
'I've pulled out all the stops on this one and thought I'd let you know the first scrap, excuse the pun, of information that I have discovered. Miraculously a small scrap of cloth from close to where we believe the blaze started survived. Every piece of cotton contains the imprint or DNA, as it were of where it originates from. This particular piece of cotton hails from Uzbekistan. This ex-Soviet Republic supplied 99% of the Soviet Union's cotton and it now supplies 99% of Russia's cotton. I'll let you know when I have more.'
Blunt thanked him and rang off. His brow furrowed as thoughts of muddied waters crossed his mind. He grabbed the phone and punched in the number of the pathologist. He managed to get hold of Snelling himself. The miserable old bugger stated that ordinarily he would not provide info at this stage but he considers these to be special circumstances. All the people died from asphyxiation. They were unable to get out of the house because their hands and feet were bound.
Blunt extrapolated that the killer or killers had intended that the occupants die such a slow and horrendous death. Snelling retorted that he had no evidence of that but it did seem as if that were the case.
Blunt enquired as to the ages of the deceased. Snelling's answer advised him that the two Asians they were seeking were not amongst the deceased. Where were they? Someone somewhere had to know of them and their whereabouts. Again did any of this have anything to do with his unit?
A knock on his door preceded the entry of the desk sergeant clutching several pieces of paper.
'These came through last night and earlier this morning' the officer handed the documents to Blunt.
'What are they?' came the instinctive response
'I believe that they are the details of several people who claim to have seen the two Russians at some time or other.'
Blunt examined the documents. They did indeed contain statements from people who had seen the two Russians, Morski and Pidrik, on the night of the girl Gruberova's death.