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‘She’s very keen.’

Clive is a nice bloke, but a bit old-fashioned. He reckoned that it was a man’s job being a mortuary technician and, even though I thought I’d proved myself now, he still had reservations about me. ‘I suppose we could give her a month’s trial, if Ed agrees.’

‘She’ll be fine, Clive. Even if all she does is the paperwork, at least it’ll give you some more time in the PM room.’

But he was not about to be convinced easily and said doubtfully, ‘Maybe.’

Ed, though, was more upbeat. ‘If she wants to try it, why not? The lab isn’t too badly off for staff at the moment, so I reckon they could spare her.’

And so Maddie came to work down with the dead men.

THIRTY

Clive had decided that as part of my education I should attend an inquest and, accordingly, asked Ed Burberry if he would take me to one. Ed thought about this for a moment and then said, ‘It so happens I’ve got the very one.’ He looked across the office and said to Clive, ‘It’s the hanging vet next week.’

Clive laughed delightedly. ‘Classic!’ he said. ‘Absolutely classic!’

‘Is that a good one to go to?’ I asked, suspecting some plot.

All Ed would say in reply was, ‘It should prove a little more interesting than the usual Drop Dead Freds.’

As we walked to his car on the morning of the inquest, Ed explained about the inquest process. ‘If after we’ve done a post-mortem, the cause of death is either still unknown or is unnatural, then the Coroner has to hold an inquest. Our Coroner, Adrian Carter, is very good and will explain the purpose of the inquest, which is basically an inquiry to determine certain facts about the death – who it was that died, when and where they died, and then how they died. It’s the “how” bit that takes the time. I might have a medical cause of death, but he needs to discover what led up to it.’

We got in his car and, as he drove out of the car park, he continued. ‘He hears all the facts and then comes to a conclusion. He may decide the death was natural after all, or may decide that it was accidental, or suicide, or an industrial disease, or even unlawful. He may not be able to decide definitely, in which case it’s an open verdict.

‘In most cases, the inquest is very quick – only half an hour – and uncontroversial; sometimes it’s just the Coroner, the Coroner’s officer, a reporter from the local paper and me in the court, without even a relative bothering to turn up. Occasionally it’s a lot more complicated though; like this one.’ He grinned. ‘This one’s going to be like a circus, with solicitors, barristers and all sorts.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘Because Jane Mellors hanged herself in her garage in the nude.’

At which I gawped at him. ‘Nude?’

He nodded. ‘She was a vet,’ he added, as if that explained it. ‘She got out of bed in the middle of the night after a row with her husband and went down to the garage where she put a rope around a rafter and stood on a stool.’ Well, I thought, each to their own. He carried on, ‘Add to that the fact that she was having marital problems because hubby was playing away, and the family are convinced that he did it to her. They’ve got a barrister to represent them at the inquest, so the husband’s hired one as well; the family have accused the police of negligence because they decided that she did it herself, so they, in turn, have got their solicitor in to protect their reputation.’

‘What do you think?’

‘She killed herself,’ he said with absolute confidence. ‘It’s bloody hard to hang someone who doesn’t want to be hanged.’

‘Perhaps he drugged her, or knocked her on the head.’

‘All the tox is negative and there was no other trauma. There were no bruises on her arms and no evidence that she had tried to remove the rope; her wrists hadn’t been tied, either. I always check, just in case.’ He pulled into the car park outside the magistrates’ court where most of the inquests were held. ‘Here we are.’

As we walked over to the door to the court he said confidently, ‘I’m not going to have any problems with this one, you see.’

Poor Ed.