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Dark Water Robert Bryndza 19630K 2023-09-01

‘He’s divorced,’ said Moss ‘I heard hi about his ex wife a couple of weeks back’

They noticed a large wet patch on the carpet outside the bathroohtly ajar, and they moved slowly across to it Erika pushed it open and they saw in the tiny bathroom that the bath was full to the brim DI Crawford’s naked body floated in the water, which was stained red One of his arms flopped out and over the side, and they could see he had slashed his wrists

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Two days later, Erika attended the mortuary with Moss and Peterson Both Amanda Baker and DI Crawford’s bodies were laid out side by side on the stainless steelfor theht

‘What disturbs me about both of these deaths, is that whoever did this, made a very weak attempt to pass them off as suicides,’ said Isaac ‘It’s al us’

‘You don’t think they were suicide?’

‘No, I don’t,’ he said He moved to Amanda Baker first She lay under a white sheet, and she was placed on her front It was only when Isaac pulled down the sheet that they saw the angry weals around her neck

‘You can see here the usual kind of bruising I would expect to see fro, the rope has bitten deep into the skin and left a very clear and defined line,’ he said indicating the line running around her neck ‘If you can see here, there is a series of small circular bruises at the nape of the neck This indicated to htened, and then she fought, the knot of the nooseof bruises You can also see the bruise at the base of her her spine…’ he ently pulled the sheet back ‘We also recovered soernails This indicated she fought with an attacker…’

Isaac paused and then moved over to the body of DI Crawford He lay on his back, his hair combed back from his forehead His arms lay out of the sheet and beside hi incisions one on each arm They are horizontal as opposed to vertical, and each cut severed the radial artery, the main artery that supplies blood to the arht call an old barber shop razor’

Moss gri slashes in the arh levels of alcohol in his blood, and also traces of the sedative Halcion…’

‘We talked about Halcion the other day,’ said Erika

‘Yes, it is illegal in the UK, but not so in the USA, and it’s possible to get hold of it online’

‘So he got drunk, took the sedative and slit his wrists? He seee the last few days he was in work, well he seemed distracted for the whole time he was on the case,’ said Moss

‘He didn’t slit his wrists,’ said Isaac

‘How can you tell?’