The Coldest Case by Martin Walker (mobi reader android txt) 📕

he could against the door right beside the lock. It burst open to reveal the back of a gigantic man in police uniform with his hand up the skirt of a woman. The male figure began to turn at Bruno’s charging entry, but too late. Bruno roared out a war cry as he kicked his boot hard up between the man’s legs, then pivoted to strike the side of his knee and jerk him to one side. The man began to fall as his shattered knee collapsed.

As he fell, the woman shrieked again and slashed at the policeman’s arm with what looked like a scalpel. She then raised it again to threaten Bruno, blood dripping from her nose, her eyes wide in rage and shock.

Bruno backed away, keeping his arms high and outstretched, open palms towards her.

‘It’s over, Virginie. It’s okay. It’s me, Bruno.’

Her white lab coat had been ripped apart from top to bottom revealing a torn bra and a small breast that was red from some rough grasp. She blinked as she recognized him, although she kept her scalpel at the ready.

‘Are you okay?’ he asked. When she nodded, he said, ‘I have to look at your attacker, he’s bleeding.’

He bent down to the cop who was curled up in a foetal position on the floor, blood soaking into his uniform and onto the floor from the arm Virginie had slashed. Bruno put one knee on the guy’s back to keep him in place and used one of the plastic cuffs he always carried as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding from the man’s arm. He pulled the tie from around the cop’s neck to bind his ankles together.

‘You bastard, I’ll kill you for this,’ the cop grunted, trying to turn over but held face-down by Bruno’s weight.

It was the cop’s left arm that was bleeding. But there was blood on the fingers of his right hand. Bruno glanced at Virginie and saw a smeared trail of blood stains on her thigh. Putain, what had the bastard done to her?

Bruno pulled a plastic evidence bag from his hip pocket, put it over the man’s right hand. Then he called J-J.

‘It’s Bruno. I’m in the police lab downstairs where one of your cops has just tried to rape Virginie. He’ll need medical attention since she slashed him in self-defence, and I’ll be filing charges of sexual assault against him. We’ll need a female cop and a doctor for Virginie.’

He turned to look at Virginie. She had somehow pulled the lab coat together with one hand. The scalpel lay at her feet. She had the other hand to her face and was trembling, her shoulders heaving as she sobbed and hiccupped.

‘Virginie,’ he said. ‘Are you okay? What did he do? Speak to me.’

He heard a muffled sob. Then she took a deep breath, looked at him and nodded.

‘Can you tell me what happened?’ he asked.

She answered in a gabble, the words and phrases running together. ‘He keeps coming in to ask me out, day after day, and I keep saying no, I’m working, I’m busy. He won’t stop. And today he just grabbed me, grabbed my breast really, really hard, thrust his hand up . . .’

‘It’s okay, Virginie, it’s over. I’m here.’ He was trying to make sense of the blood on the cop’s hand and the smears on Virginie’s thighs. He’d leave that to the policewoman J-J would be bringing.

‘I need an ambulance,’ said the cop, lying under Bruno’s knee.

‘You’re under arrest,’ Bruno said, and checked the man’s arm. The bleeding had stopped and Bruno recognized the man’s face, the one in the police canteen who had made that offensive joke about sheep-shaggers.

‘Virginie, please, pass me your scalpel,’ Bruno said. She simply stared at him until he added, ‘I need to look at his wound, where you slashed him.’

She nodded, bent down to pick it up and handed it to him. Bruno cut away the sleeve of the cop’s uniform and the shirt beneath to reveal a long, seeping cut running from the man’s bicep down to his elbow. It didn’t look too deep and the tourniquet was holding. He tightened the plastic cuff another notch and looked up to see Virginie staggering to the sink.

‘Stop, Virginie. Please, don’t wash anything away,’ he said. ‘We need the evidence to nail this bastard.’

‘I’m going to be sick,’ she said, and vomited into the sink.

As he spoke, he heard a clattering of feet coming down the stairs and J-J was the first in, a policewoman behind him and then a uniformed cop carrying a first aid kit. Finally, Commissioner Prunier himself came to stand, silent and glowering, at the door. J-J must have called him.

‘We need medical attention, first for this young woman who’s been assaulted, then for this cop whom I saw assault her,’ Bruno said. ‘I’m ready to give a statement. I should stress that I saw the cop with his hand far up this woman’s skirt. There’s blood on her thighs and on his right hand. That’s why I covered it with an evidence bag. I believe the blood on his hand will be hers. I insist that this be checked at once. The cut on the cop’s left arm was made by the victim in self-defence.’

‘Right,’ said Prunier, staring grimly at the scene. ‘Commissaire Jalipeau, you’re in charge.’ He went on to give instructions for the immediate blood tests Bruno had asked for, as well as requesting a female medical examiner to look at Virginie. ‘Nobody leaves this room until that’s done,’ he continued. ‘Gardien Baldin is under arrest but also requires medical attention. I want statements to be taken from all three who were in this room when we arrived.’

He turned to the policewoman. ‘You will accompany the victim at all times until further notice.’ He turned again. ‘Bruno, I’ll take your statement myself. Come with me.’ He led the way up the stairs and across the courtyard to the main building. They took the lift