Inspector Rames

Chapter 27

PRBs were crawling over the train tracks like shiny ants, looking for evidence to carry to their nest. I doubted they would find much. The train had been travelling so fast that Evan Archer had disintegrated.

Cassia was supposed to be examining the blood and body matter, but she was standing with me instead. Dixon was also with me, dishing out orders to Sebastian on his earpiece, who was in charge of the crime scene. He should have been giving orders to Alex too, but my sergeant was at my side, draping his coat around me.

Dixon watched Alex until the coat was balanced on my shoulders. Then his gaze slid back to me. "You didn't see who pushed Evan?"

I inhaled a lungful of bloody air. There had been so much of it: all over my clothes, all over my face. I'd had to take my jumper off and bag it, and I'd scrubbed and scrubbed my skin in the toilets, but I could still feel it everywhere.

Another breath was needed before I could speak. "No, sir."

"Are you sure whoever pushed him didn't mean to get you?"

"I'm sure. I was supposed to be dead already."

"But it was Evan who tried to poison you," Alex said. "Not whoever pushed him."

Dixon turned to our pathologist. "What did you make of the coffee, Cassia?"

"Both contained potassium cyanide -- enough to kill the consumers in minutes," she replied. "So, Evan's killer assumed he'd done his job and...poisoned Amber. I guess their next task was to remove some of the evidence by killing Evan."

Sebastian appeared on Dixon's other side. "You know, she's clever. She should be a detective."

Cassia blushed. Sebastian smiled at her.

Dixon cleared his throat. "Are all the witness statements from the passengers being taken?"

"Yes, sir. I just came to check on Amber."

"I'm okay," I said, but my hands found the edges of Alex's coat and pulled it tighter around my shoulders.

Alex frowned at me. "Going back to the cyanide -- why fill two cups?"

"I guess Evan didn't know which one I would drink," I murmured. "Neither would have ever reached you, that's for certain."

"We need to get a move on," Dixon said. "Alex, go with Sebastian and find someone who can show you the CCTV footage. Cassia, stay here with Amber and keep an eye on her. I'll tell Laney to inform Evan's family."

"No!" I protested. "This is my investigation. I'm going with Alex."

Dixon pinched the bridge of his nose. "You're in shock. Don't argue with me about this."

"I think she should come with me, sir," Alex said.

"Don't you argue with me, either."

"She's just going to keep thinking about it if she stands around here."

"And taking her to look at the footage is going to help?"

"I'd like to see," I said quietly. "I need to see."

I wanted to remember it through the eyes of an outsider. Not mine.

"Fine," Dixon sighed.

"Thank you, sir." My shoulders slumped, and the coat slid down my back.

Alex caught it. "Keep that. Let's go."

***

"Here we are." Niko Fowler, the conductor from the fatal train, led us into the office behind the platform's information desk. "I'll load the footage for you."