Poor thing was probably terrified.
‘Nobody opened the bag for ID yet?’ she asked, turning back to the victim.
‘We were waiting for—’
‘Sorry I’m late,’ Mitch said, heading towards them. His bottom half was in the white paper overalls while his top half was trying to catch up. ‘We had an away game in Worcester.’
‘Of what?’ she asked as he drew alongside her.
‘Dominoes.’
‘Really?’ she asked.
‘Hey, we’re top of the league.’
‘There’s a league?’
‘There’s a body as well when you two have finished,’ Keats snapped.
‘Double call-out. Testy,’ Kim explained to the forensic techie.
‘Got it,’ he said, taking a good look at the body. ‘Oh dear, this was no accident, was it?’
Kim stayed silent as he walked around the body.
‘Anything touched?’ Mitch asked.
Keats shook his head. ‘Guy that found her touched nothing, and only photos taken so far.’
Mitch nodded his approval. ‘Okay, I’m guessing we want the bag first?’
Kim nodded, hoping there was going to be some kind of identification in there.
Mitch donned his protective gloves and reached for an evidence bag. He clicked open the satchel, removed the poo bags and placed them into the evidence bag. Next item was pay dirt, a purse. He carefully opened it as Kim took out her phone.
He went to the front of the cards section and took out a driving licence. Kim read it while taking a couple of photos. Sandra Deakin, aged forty-one, with an address in Hawne, an area of Halesowen within walking distance of the church. She tried to force the image of the woman’s face in the photo into her mind, to overlay the picture already in her head, but she knew that her initial visual of Sandra Deakin was the one that would stay with her forever.
‘Thanks, Mitch,’ she said as he placed the satchel on the ground and started to bag the hands.
She put her phone away and looked around for a face she recognised. A deeply tanned white-haired man was striding towards her.
‘Better late than never, Planty,’ she said to a police inspector she knew very well.
‘At your service, Inspector.’
‘Can I trust you to do the honours?’
He nodded sombrely as she held up her phone for him to read the address.
‘I’ll get right on—’
‘Hang on just a bit. I’m hoping you’ll be able to take the family dog back.’
He looked around but she didn’t have time to explain.
‘Are you done with me, Keats?’ she asked.
‘Overwhelmed with potential responses to that one, so I’ll keep it zipped.’
‘Good call,’ she said, heading over to the group who’d been asked to remain.
She strode into the middle of them.
‘Someone here found the victim?’ she asked as the two constables stepped back.
A man with thinning reddish hair stepped forward. ‘Father George Markinson,’ he said, holding out his hand. ‘Father George for short.’
Kim ignored it. ‘You found her?’
He let his hand fall as he nodded to the guy in the cable jumper. ‘No, that was Terence Birch.’
Kim glanced over the other five men. ‘Anyone else see anything?’
They all shook their heads.
‘No one went near the body or took photos?’
They all looked horrified as they again shook their heads.
Sadly, it was a question she had to ask these days.
‘We’ve got all their details?’ she asked the constables.
‘Yes, marm,’ they said together.
‘Okay, you can all go for now, but please don’t share what you’ve seen here with any press. Officers will come to take statements at your homes.’
They all nodded their understanding before filtering away.
‘Okay, Mr…’
‘Terence is one of our bell ringers,’ Father George said. ‘He was leaving—’
‘Thank you, Father. Is Terence unable to speak?’
The clergyman’s expression told her he didn’t like to be challenged. She held his gaze for a second before turning to the man.
‘Terence, can you tell me what happened?’ she asked, touching him lightly on the arm. He hadn’t yet looked at her once.
‘So much blood,’ he said, still staring at the ground as though the body was right there.
‘You were leaving after ringing the bells?’ she clarified, looking to where he would have exited the church. It was a good seventy metres away. ‘You didn’t head straight for the gate?’
To find Sandra’s body he would have had to take a detour around the back of the building.
‘I was checking.’
‘For what?’
‘Sandy. I saw her when I came in.’
‘You know her?’ Kim asked, hearing the distant peal of alarm bells herself.
Terence lifted his head and nodded. ‘She’s local. We all know her. She comes here a lot.’
‘Yes, she does,’ Father George added with a hint of irritation.
Halesowen wasn’t a huge town. She shouldn’t be surprised that the victim was known.
‘Did she attend services?’ she asked Father George.
‘Goodness no,’ he said. ‘She came to the graveyard once or twice a week, walking the dog.’
Kim was unsure why a note of tolerance had crept into his voice, as though this was an activity he allowed her. If the place was open, where was the harm?
‘And you saw her on your way in to ring the bells?’ she asked Terence.
He nodded. ‘Yes, she was here doing her thing.’
‘What’s her thing?’ Kim asked.
‘She walks around touching the graves. She stands there with her eyes closed just feeling the stones.’
Disapproval flitted over Father George’s features but he said nothing.
‘So you went to check on her when you’d finished?’
‘Yes, I’ve had to walk her out a couple of times before. I’m a key holder. I lock up. I don’t even know why I went that far out. I just had this feeling, so I kept walking and that’s when I found…’ He stopped speaking as the images returned full force, and his gaze once again went to the ground.
‘Did you see or hear anything else at all?’ Kim asked.
‘Nothing. I just cried out then called emergency services straight away. I didn’t touch her. I knew she was dead. I stayed with her until they came.’ He raised his gaze again and his eyes were watery. ‘Is that okay?’
‘You did everything right, Terence,’ she said. ‘There was nothing you could have done to help her.’
A sob escaped from his lips. He’d had enough for one night.
‘Go home,’ she advised gently. ‘Someone will be along to take a statement but thank you for checking on her. Finding her so early gives us the best possible chance of finding whoever did this.’
‘I’ll walk him to the car,’ Father George said, guiding him away.
As she watched, she spied Inspector Plant getting into a squad car. She was pleased to see he was holding the lead of an excitable Labrador.