Read Online A Matter of Blood by Sarah Pinborough - Free Book Online

that line and whispered how sorry he was for everything. For a moment he thought he might do it, but instead he found his legs carrying him to the spare room to get dressed. There wasn’t enough time for that kind of apology, and anyway, it would be like sticking a plaster over a bullet wound.
    In the end, he left the house without speaking. Their marriage worked better that way.

Chapter Four
     
     
     
    ‘ Y ou’ll be pleased to hear that this is definitely number four.’The ME pulled the sheet back from the body on the metal table with brisk efficiency. Cass peered into Carla Rae’s face and felt nothing. Displayed on the slab like this she was simply evidence. The dead woman in his memory, trapped in the crime scene photographs, she was the victim, not this cut-open, soulless corpse.
    ‘Oh yeah, that’s cheered me up no end.’ Blackmore stayed slightly behind Cass and he wondered if it was just that he didn’t want to get any trace of death on his crisp apple-green shirt. He was warming to the sergeant’s ironic tongue, though. He’d give him that.
    ‘It should do.’ Cass didn’t look up. ‘It means that at least we don’t have to worry about a copycat as well as a serial.’
    ‘Remember,’ Farmer said, ‘serial is a taboo word on this case. We don’t want the press hearing a whisper of it.’
    ‘Like we can stop that! They have better informers than we do.’ Cass folded his arms across his chest. ‘So, what have we got?’
    ‘Cause of death is the same as the other three. A lethal injection of pentabarbitone, delivered intravenously into the arm here.’ He highlighted the small bruise on the inside of her elbow.
    ‘Were they all injected in the right arm?’
    ‘Yes - and pretty much in the same spot.’
    ‘Would it be painful?’
    ‘No, not at all. Quite the opposite in fact. Pentabarbitone is a barbiturate - a tranquilliser. It’s called Nembutal in the US.’ Farmer smiled, grimly. ‘It’s the euthanasia drug of choice.’
    ‘And currently the drug of choice in Hollywood,’ Blackmore added. ‘Often the cause of accidental suicide when taken with alcohol.’
    ‘You’ve been doing your homework,’ Farmer said approvingly before turning his attention back to Cass. ‘Your sergeant’s right - although our killer isn’t actually using Nembutal. He’s using veterinary pentabarbitone. It’s what they use to put animals down.’
    ‘What’s the difference?’
    ‘Very little really. Nembutal also contains propylene glycol, and there are no traces of that in any of the victims.’ He paused. ‘The drug works by slowing down the body’s respiration until breathing stops altogether. The woman died quickly and painlessly. They all did.’
    Cass frowned. ‘How hard is it to get hold of this drug?’
    ‘Not that easy. Veterinary surgeries and their suppliers will all stock it. Any pharmaceutical company that makes drugs for vets will also have it.’ He shrugged. ‘But sales and usage will all have to be recorded.’
    The feel of the morgue’s cool air on Cass’s skin was keeping his brain firing, and he was grateful. He was going to need as much help as he could get today. His bones ached, from sleeping in the car and the cocaine comedown. ‘Is it difficult to administer?’
    ‘Not overly. If it’s injected too quickly then the sudden cessation of respiratory functions can cause a heart attack. But that wasn’t the case with any of our victims.’
    ‘So he knows what he’s doing.’
    ‘It looks that way, yes.’
    Cass logged the information in his brain to mull over later. Why hadn’t the killer just used coke or crack or H- something that would be much easier to come by and much harder to trace? All of those would be equally lethal if injected in the right quantities.
    The profiler was coming in later. Maybe he’d be able to shed some light on that. Cass looked up. Farmer looked tired. Blackmore looked slightly bored. Cass didn’t care. Maybe he could have read all this