Read The Jigsaw Man for Free Online

puncturing her heart. There were no signs of robbery or of a sexual assault and we haven’t found the murder weapon …’
    He paused. ‘We did, however, find this…’
    A piece of paper had been discovered lying near the body that contained a drawing of a pentagram in a circle - an image often associated with satanic or black magic rituals.
    ‘We think the murderer left it behind,’ said Baker, unable to hide his disquiet.
    Opening the first spiral-bound folder, he asked, ‘Have you ever seen crime scene photographs, Paul?’
    I shook my head.
    ‘I’m sorry, it’s not a pleasant thing.’
    The first pages consisted of area-establishing shots of the canal and towpath. The images then gradually focused down upon the body which was pictured from every conceivable angle. It was appalling, and I had a most powerful urge to put the photographs down, close the album and walk away. I’d never seen anything like it.
    Until then, I didn’t know what stab wounds did to a body, or how in violent death limbs can often project at unnatural angles, or that with so much blood it was difficult to make out what had happened.
    Caroline had also been photographed through each stage of the postmortem and, as I opened a new folder, I quickly saw the difference between a person lying at a scene of crime and then washed, weighed and cleaned for the pathologist. It was like looking at a statue that is more or less perfect except for these terrible ripping holes - like a work of art despoiled by a vandal.
    Forcing myself to look, I began to concentrate on what had happened to Caroline. I needed to understand the distribution of the wounds and how they were clustered. Almost unconsciously, I began asking myself questions. What sort of knife did he use? Was he right-handed (95 per cent of people are)? If so, was it possible to tell if he was standing in front of or behind Caroline when he began stabbing her? When did he tie her up? How long had she been conscious? How quickly did she die?
    The answers were important because they influenced the much larger question of motivation. What did the killer seek to achieve when he murdered Caroline? A robbery that went wrong has far different implications to a sexually motivated killing.
    Eventually, I closed the albums and leaned back from the desk, trying to rid myself of the images.
    ‘What was Caroline like?’ I asked Baker.
    He slid a snapshot across the table that showed her smiling at the camera, vibrant and alive. He began to give me a fairly standard description of height, weight, hair colour, complexion … but I stopped him. ‘No, what was she like as a person?’
    ‘Oh, I see … well… she was fit, hard-working, bright … A careerwoman, I suppose. She certainly devoted a lot of time to her business. She and her husband separated about eighteen months ago and were getting a divorce. He lives down south. He checks out. As far as we can establish she had no secret life or boyfriends; nor any outside interests.’
    ‘And no-one saw her that evening?’
    Baker shook his head. ‘We estimate there were probably about two hundred people in the Aylestone Meadows area at the time. About one hundred and twenty of them have come forward and no-one can remember seeing Caroline on the towpath. We’ve also checked with the holiday companies who rented barges and house boats on the canal… nothing.’
    Baker couldn’t hide his frustration. The inquiry had been one of the largest ever conducted in Leicestershire. Over 15,000 people had been interviewed, some as many as seventeen times, and eighty men had been arrested on suspicion for further questioning before being released.
    ‘Can I get back to you?’ I asked, as the meeting ended. ‘I want to think about this.’
    ‘Of course,’ he said, shaking my hand.
    ‘Is it possible to take some of the material with me?’
    ‘Give me a note of what you need.’
    At home Marilyn sensed something was wrong from the moment I walked in the door. I