Detective-Inspector Ifan Rhys-Morgan squinted at the forensics and coroners reports scattered across his desk. Whilst his team was out investigating, he was determined to get his head around the current state of affairs.
There had been a bit of initial lab confusion introduced by the presence of two sisters of similar build and height and shared markers in the DNA analysis. The latest report had confirmed it, though: the eleventh named victim was Antonia Fredricks, sister of Emma Fredricks. In a moment’s cowardice, he felt thankful that he would not be the one visiting the Fredricks house to break the news.
He picked up the coroner’s report and looked at the summary for the third time that morning. The coroner had apparently been watching too much Bones and seemed a little bit too gleeful about what she had described to him on the phone as a “human jigsaw puzzle”. He skipped over the gory details and traced his finger over the bottom line: twelve victims in total, with seven male bodies and five female. Based on dental records, fingerprints and direct facial recognition, eight of these now had names attached to them.
He turned over to where the names were listed and let his eyes linger as his brain processed them again: David and Wendy Lloyd, Frank and Sarah Jackson, Anthony Smeg, Emma and Antonia Fredricks, and Duncan Bridges. That left only three men and one woman still needing identification.
Rhys-Morgan flicked through to the relevant pages. They were getting closer to physical descriptions that they could cross-reference to the missing persons reports. With just over two days since the blast, there was no guarantee that the remaining victims had been reported yet. He would no be too surprised if that did not yield further fruit until tomorrow. Unless the DNA beat them to it, of course.
He dropped it back on the desk and then picked up the latest forensics report. Things were not quite so clear-cut from the lab boys. So far, they had at least eleven confirmed DNA sources: seven male and four female. Of these, only four had confirmed IDs from the records: David Lloyd, Frank Jackson, Patrick Edwards and, unbelievably, Garth Jones. Of these, only David and Frank had also been identified from physical remains.
They were therefore busy trying to match up the remaining seven identified bodies with the DNA they had already, as well as getting the missing female sample. The original collection and analysis had understandably been a little haphazard at first but now that the “human jigsaw” was complete, they could be a bit more systematic.
Two of the female samples had familial matches and presumably belonged to the Fredricks sisters, so they were scheduled to be tested first. The other priority was to match the other two bodiless names from DNA identifications - Patrick Edwards and Garth Jones - to nameless bodies.
Rhys-Morgan placed the report back on his desk and shuffled the stack into some semblance of order before reaching subconsciously for his coffee mug. He drew it to his lips before noticing its emptiness for the third time since the morning’s briefing.
He stared at the stained bottom of the mug as he cogitated. Three men yet to identify and one woman. He had no idea who the latter was. If missing persons didn’t come through, they’d have to start circulating pictures to the media tomorrow. The media. He suppressed a shudder. That was not a part of his job he enjoyed - or was any good at, for that matter.
He turned his mind to the men. Assuming that Patrick and Garth matched bodies, that would leave one Joe Bloggs. The missing Peter Lloyd would complete the set. If that was him. If it wasn’t him... well, then Peter Lloyd would definitely be at the top of the suspects list. He put the mug down. They should stake-out his pet shop in case. Until the motive was sorted out for this, Rhys-Morgan wanted to leave nothing to chance.
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