For a moment Kate just stood there, staring at Ben.

“Oh… I get dressed then”, she said after registering what she’d been just told.

“No need. We won’t be able to talk to him”, Ben said shaking his head.

“No? Is he…?” Kate’s eyes widened.

“No. Well, not yet. They found him unconscious in an alleyway in Pine Creek. Looks like someone beat him up really badly.”

“Shit”, Kate said with her hands on her hips.

“Yep”, Ben agreed. “Sorry for waking you up for nothing. I saw your lights were still on, figured you are still up.”

Kate waved a hand. Never mind. “Is he going to make it?”

“The doctor is hopeful. But he will call back tomorrow if…, when he woke up.”

“What about his clothes? All the possible evidence?”, Kate asked, worried.

“I asked the doctor to make sure they are all packed up properly. He’ll do his best, but he said there was a lot of blood…”

“Shit”, Kate said before she slammed the door and climbed back to bed.

After tossing and turning for a while Kate gave up on sleeping and carried on reading the journal Seargeant Ellers gave her last night. So far she hasn’t found anything that was particularly useful; June hadn’t been too enthusiastic when it came to documenting her life. There were a few mentions of Tim and Maggie from the bar, some other people Kate didn’t know, but nothing suspicious; recollection of her dreams and what they could mean; then long ramblings about David and June’s plans for the future. Maggie was right. These notes seemed to be the exact opposites of the ones from the pre-David era. Those were just literally accounts of what happened to June that day, notes about appointments and the likes. But these newer ones went into great details about how she envisaged the future with this man.

Only when she went through it the second time she noticed the initials P.H. appearing on quite a few pages. Paul Havers? An affair? Possibly. But nothing like the one with David. It seemed June met a few times with Paul in seemingly random places. None of them were her favourite romantic spot, the barn.

*

Ben was already sipping on a cup of coffee when Kate arrived for breakfast at 7 o’clock. She picked up a couple of rock hard toasts and a tiny pot of strawberry jam and butter.

“Coffee?”, he asked and wiggled his cup.

“Ummh…”, said Kate as he collapsed on the chair.

“I need to warn you though. It’s not good”, Ben grinned as he poured the muddy brown liquid to Kate’s mug.

“How bad could it be?”, she said, but then remembered the green sludge and shuddered. After a sip of coffee which made her face contort in disgust she put her cup down and started buttering her cold toasts. “Anyway, what’s the plan for today?”

“I just got an email from Ellers”, Ben said, turning his laptop around so Kate can read it as well. “Aruna is coming to the station with Doctor Franklin around 9 to go through the report. Hopefully by the time we are done we can go and see David Foster.”

Kate nodded, and kept chewing on her sad looking breakfast without a word.

Ben continued. “Ellers is also trying to get Paul Havers come down to the station today. But first we need to hear what Aruna and the doctor have to say.”

Kate was about to say something when she heard the shuffling noise behind her.

“Good morning!”, came the cheerful voice of Inga Pike and she appeared at their table with another pot filled with what looked like filthy water. “More coffee? I heard from Sergeant Ellers that you drink bucketfuls of it, so I made an extra pot.”

“What? He’s probably mistaken. I’m more like a tea sort of person, you see.”, said Kate, trying to keep a straight face.

“Oh? Well, that’s wonderful!”, chimed Inga. “Then you will love this new brew I’ve been experimenting with lately.” With that she disappeared back to the kitchen.

“Should have said you are a water sort of person”, Ben burst out laughing.

Kate imagined throwing his half eaten toast at her partner’s head and felt oddly satisfied.

*

Aruna Sharma and Doctor Franklin were already sitting around the table in the meeting room, discussing Indian cuisine, when Kate and Ben arrived. Sergeant Ellers was making coffee and Kate never seemed happier to be at work. After they were all supplied with drinks and cookies, Aruna got to her feet and started her presentation. She explained in details what she found: three sets of finger prints, taken from the beer bottles. One from the victim, the other two unknown, there was no match in any criminal database; the blood analysis showed that the perpetrator did not leave blood evidence behind; the cigarette butts were from a common brand, and although it might be possible to retrieve DNA sample from them, at the moment there’s nothing to match them against; same went for the hair sample, so she just noted they were short and dark brown. They all agreed that this could mean Paul Havers just as much as David Foster.

“After consulting with Doctor Franklin we both agreed that it seemed like a very personal crime”, Aruna continued, her voice grave. “The attack seemed very intimate, very intense. Time of death was between 11 pm and midnight. We determined that the first blow came from behind. The perpetrator was possibly the same height as the victim. We would know better if we found the murder weapon.”

“We are on it”, added Sergeant Ellers and Aruna nodded.

“We think it was likely an axe.”

Kate raised an eyebrow and Ben leaned forward in her seat.

“An axe?”, it was Sergeant Ellers who eventually voiced their question. “Wouldn’t have that got buried in her head after the first blow?”

Aruna seemed thrilled about this question and launched into an explanation. “Well, not necessarily. You see, like I said the first blow came from behind. If the weapon was not sharp, or the perpetrator lost his grip on it, or just simply didn’t apply that much force, then it’s possible. We have a theory about how it happened.” She looked at Doctor Franklin before continuing, and he gave her a nod.

“They were arguing. The perp gets more and more agitated, up to the point where he sees red, then his eyes fall on the axe and he grabs it. Hits June Sanders from behind. This is not the killing blow though. Oh, no, far from it. Miss Sanders falls to her knees,” Aruna voice was raising and she fell to her knees, imitating the pose of the victim. “Probably clutches the back of her with her left hand – the blood stains on this hand indicated something like this -, and raises the other hand in an attempt to shield herself. This is consistent with a cut on her right forearm. After she failed to protect herself, the perpetrator hits again, hence the bruise on June Sander’s right temple. This probably caused her to fall on her stomach.” Aruna’s voice muffled as she continued her explanation, spread out on the floor, twitching her leg as she imagined the victim had been, based on some blood smears she found intriguing. “I would say she was knocked out at this point. But our perp did not stop here either. He hit her once more, delivering the deadly blow. Then he fled the scene and probably hid the weapon somewhere. The fact that we did not find much blood outside the barn means that he probably wiped the weapon, or wrapped it up in something before he disappeared into the night.”

There was silence. Nobody dared say anything and they all just stared at each other in disbelief. All but Doctor Franklin. He seemed unshaken, like Aruna Sharma play-acting death scenes, writhing on the floor, was a perfectly normal daily occurrence in his life.

Ben made a coughing noise just when Aruna Sharma rose from the floor, smoothing down her crumpled shirt. “What about the footprints?” he queried.

“Yes, I was about to get to them”, Aruna said and gave Ben a reproachful look. “One of them we identified as the boot print from Adam Swanson, custom made cowboy boots. The other one was a partial, but from what I can see they are most likely your typical work boots every other person wears around here. Again, we have nothing to match it against, so you better look into that as well.”

Yes, that was that, Kate thought. Not much, but enough to keep them occupied for a while now. Doctor Franklin did not take long. He just confirmed again what they already knew: June Sanders was pregnant. At this point the paternity of the unborn child was not clear and Kate doubted they will get permission for a DNA test based on what little they have to go on. Perhaps it didn’t even matter.

Kate was just grabbing a second coffee when Ben’s phone started ringing. She couldn’t hear what’s been said, but saw his shoulders tense.

“What’s up?”, she asked him when he hung up.

“David Foster is awake.”

“Let’s go then.”