All Passion Spent by Bergotte (ebook reader screen txt) 📖

the grounds of Sydney Gardens. Detective Sergeant Anna Rossi of the Avon and Somerset Constabulary answered the call, informing the caller that a police car would be at the scene in the next few minutes. On their arrival at the scene, Sergeant Rossi and two police constables, a small group of gardeners and ground staff gathered round to see what would happen next.
“Who found the body?” asked Anna.
“Those two chaps standing over there, the one in the blue jacket with a cap on his head and the one next to him in green,” replied a member of the group. Anna went over to them.
“Good morning, I’m Detective Sergeant Rossi. Can you show me where you found the body, please?”
“Yes,” said the man in green, “come with me. I’m Harry by the way,” He led the police officer down the path towards another entrance to the gardens, talking as he did so. “The other bloke, Albert Harper and I went round the back here just before nine this morning. We saw a large pile of leaves and sticks and branches and went to look at it, because it wasn’t there when we left on Friday evening. We thought it was kids at first, just messing about.” He pushed his way past some bushes and motioned Anna to follow.
They came upon a small area that was being used as a compost dump, the bushes screening the visitor from the sight of compost from the path. There was a clear area of hardened earth between the piles of compost and the bushes. Harry pointed to the fully clothed body of a woman, lying on her back, still partially covered with leaves. Anna could see that she was, or had been, smartly dressed, in neat shoes and an elegant coat. Her handbag was still over her arm, but Anna noticed that it was open. Any objects that were once inside it and had spilled out must have been removed, for there was nothing to be seen near or next to the body.
“What did you do?” she asked.
“Disturbed these leaves a bit and found this woman’s body underneath…phoned the police; she was quite obviously dead.”
“You haven’t touched anything, other than the leaves, have you?” asked Anna.
“No, she’s exactly as we found her.”
“Good, I’ll get my two constables to cordon off this area. We must not let any members of the public get anywhere near here.”
“No, I understand that,” said Harry. In a few minutes Anna had everything organised, with a police constable keeping guard over the grisly remains hidden discreetly behind the bushes. She then walked quickly back to the area in front of the main gate to see a tall plain clothes policeman emerging from a second police car, a smart brown leather document case under his arm.
“Good morning, sir, I’m Detective Sergeant Rossi.”
“Good morning to you Sergeant Rossi, I’m Chief Inspector Gerrard.”
Anna explained what had happened and how far she had got in establishing the crime scene.
“You had better show me where the body is and then I’ll take a statement from the gardener.” “SOCOs should be arriving soon,” said Sergeant Rossi, as the two detectives walked side by side towards the compost dump. “It’s through there,” she continued, with a slight tremor in her voice. Gerrard pushed his way through the greenery, leaving his sergeant on her own and cast his expert eye over the scene. He then walked back to the group of workers still waiting to find out what was going to happen to them. Sergeant Rossi joined them.

He thanked them for being so patient and hoped for their full co-operation. He told them that the police were there to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of the woman that had been found behind the bushes not far from where they were standing. If anybody had any further information however trivial, would they please feel free to approach either him or Sergeant Rossi. They would each be interviewed individually. They were at liberty to leave the area and get on with their work, but no one was to approach the scene where the body lay. Gerrard thanked them for their patience once again and turned to his sergeant.
“Do we need any help in interviewing the rest of this group of people?”
“No, I think we can manage,” said Anna, “I’ve talked a bit to one of the men who found the body. Shall I start talking to the others?”
“Yes. Good, let’s get cracking then,” said Gerrard. “At this juncture, what we need to find, are witnesses, people who saw the accident, or who saw the woman being dragged or carried over to those bushes. Have we got any ID on the body yet?”
“No, but there is a strong chance that there’ll be something in the handbag she had over her arm when we looked at her, something to identify her, I mean. That’s the head gardener, over there, sir,” said Anna pointing out Albert. In a few paces Gerrard strode over to where the man was waiting and introduced himself.
“Is there an office nearby, where we can go and talk?” he asked.
“Yes, just there, by the ice cream kiosk,” replied the man.
“Let’s go in there then.”

The gardener shuffled into the room still wearing his cap. He looked frightened, as if he were going to be made to take the blame for the recent macabre events.
“Take a seat,” said Gerrard in a kindly tone of voice. “Now, your name is?” he asked, trying to reassure the man but, also get on with the business in hand at the same time.
“My name’s Bert, Albert … Albert Harper… but everyone calls me Bert.”
“Okay Mr Harper, please tell me everything you can remember about this morning.”
“You mean finding the body and all?”
“Yes, take your time, tell me everything, every detail. The smallest detail might turn out to be important, so try not to leave anything out. Can you remember what time it was when you found the body?”
“Yes, about two minutes to nine. I come about eight o’clock most days and put on my work clothes. Then I see what jobs need doing.”
“You’re the head gardener here aren’t you?”
“Yes, been working in this kind of work in Bath for about thirty-five years, man and boy so to speak. That’s why I come early… to get everything set up for the others.”
“The other groundsmen?”
“Yep, that’s right.”
“How many of you are there?”
“Well, there are six blokes working here today.”
“Okay. Well, the other police officers will speak to them individually if they have any further information to offer. You tell me what you saw and I will write it down and we’ll try and work it into some kind of statement that I can get written up later, which you can sign.”
“As I say, I went over to that clump of bushes near the other entrance, where we keep some of the compost heaps, ’cos the fence behind needs seeing to. It’s a bit rickety. I was looking at the fence. I didn’t notice anything else at first. But when I turned round I realised I was standing next to a lumpy thing all covered in leaves and twigs.”
“What did you do, then?”
“I bent over to get a closer look. I could see through the leaves that it was a woman.”
“Was she lying on her back or face downwards?”
At this moment Anna knocked politely on the office door and entered. “Excuse me sir… there was a diary in the handbag with her address,” said Anna handing it over to Gerrard. He flicked through it and then turned to the personal section at the front. “It’s here all right, Mrs Fellingham,” he commented. “Can you find out if there is a neighbour or someone we can talk to this afternoon?”
“I’ve already found a telephone number for a Mrs Smith who is a near neighbour of the victim. I rang her just now and I’ve provisionally arranged for us to meet her at the victim’s house at two o’clock this afternoon, if that’s okay with you sir.”
“Yes, excellent. She has a key, presumably, does she?”
“Yes, she does some cleaning for Mrs Fellingham. It seems that they were quite close. She sounded very tearful when I phoned her with the news. I’ll call her back to confirm our meeting then, sir.”
“Yes, please do. Now we have contact with Mrs Smith we need to make contact with Mrs Fellingham’s family.” “I’ll get on to that right away, sir.” Anna Rossi left the room, feeling that she had been of some use to Gerrard.

“Sorry about that interruption. I need to know whether you found the deceased on her back or lying face downwards.”
“She was as you yourself saw her, face upwards, lying on her back or at least, slightly on her side.”
“And you didn’t move her at all?”
“No, absolutely not,” said Albert. Gerrard sat back in his chair and thought for several moments. Eventually Albert asked, “Will there be anything else sir? I’ve a busy day ahead.”
“No, there’s nothing else that I can think of. You realise of course, that the area is now officially a crime scene and consequently sealed off to everybody except my officers.”
“Oh yes sir, I fully understand that. We all do.”
“Good, that will be all then, thank you very much. You’ve been a great help to us.”

Albert Harper left the little office. Gerrard remained, deep in thought. He started to read through all the notes he had taken.

CHAPTER TWO

Saturday, October 21: morning

While the Chief Inspector had been conducting his interview with the gardener, a smartly dressed elderly looking gentleman appeared on the scene, carrying a black bag. He introduced himself to Sergeant Rossi as Dr Stephen Ray, the locum pathologist. “In fact,” he explained, as she escorted him along the path to the compost heap and pointed him in the direction where the body lay hidden behind the bushes, “I am recently retired. They’ve brought me out of retirement for a week or so.”
“What’s happened to our regular pathologist?
“Oh, you mean Dr Terry, presumably?”
“I don’t really know. I’ve never actually met the pathologist. I haven’t been here all that long, with the police in Bath, I mean.” “Dr Eve Terry is the regular pathologist. Unfortunately, she was taken ill last week. It’s nothing serious, but she will take a little time to recover. Now,” he said, abruptly changing the subject, “this is what you’ve got to show me, yes?” They had reached the grim scene, which Anna had looked on earlier. She nodded in affirmation but had no wish to repeat the experience. She was still feeling a bit queasy from her first sighting of the victim.
“Is it all right if I leave you here now to make your examination?” she asked, hoping for his agreement.
“Yes, that’s perfectly all right. I shall take my time and make a thorough investigation,” replied the pathologist. Anna went off to talk to some other members of the ground staff who were still waiting patiently to be interviewed. After a while, Dr Ray emerged from the undergrowth and met with both detectives.
“What can you tell us?” asked Gerrard.
“As you saw for yourselves, it’s the body of a middle aged woman, fully clothed with extensive injuries to her head and limbs and the loss of a lot of blood. The head wounds are consistent with being struck very violently. I’ll tell you more when I get her on the slab, but what I can tell you is that she did not receive her injuries where she was found.”