Page 44 - double revenge 3.

‘I’m taking you to see Arnold Warner.’

‘You’re what?’

‘There’s a brown envelope in the glove box, open it and read the document.’

Inside the envelope was a pathologist’s report.

I started to read but was aware of Barker on a two-way radio.

‘We need the Met to get us off the M25 anti clock. At least two cars but there could be a third
doing a slow trail so wherever we get off needs to be closed for sometime afterwards’.

Then a few minutes later, ‘15 is good. ETA twenty minutes. I also need someone to pick up Bryant’s
car; it will be in the police compound. We’re heading for the H and H. Get Thomas to meet me
there with his equipment.’

The pathologists report was long but did not mean too much to me except that whoever it was, had
suffered a great deal of injuries.

‘Is this Arnold?’ I asked.

‘Certainly is.’

‘Was he in a plane crash?’

‘You’d think so. It is a bit hard to understand so I got the Pathologist to do me a layman’s
translation. It appears his injuries came in three stages.

The swelling of the feet and discolouration of the soles due to haematoma are typical of falanga
torture, beatings on the soles of the feet. The brachial plexus injury and the dislocation of the arms
are effects caused by Strappado torture otherwise known as Palestinian hanging where the body is
suspended by the wrists, bound behind the back.
Since he was already dead when dropped into the Thames, the water found in the lungs could be

attributed to water torture, either dunking or water boarding.

Torture was therefore the first stage. In the second stage, he was punched, kicked and beaten with
fists and blunt instruments. The third phase was down to someone called Charlie something or
other, the man operating the dredger that accidently pulled him up from the riverbed. The dredging
bucket ripped most of his face off.’

‘The pathologists report mentions a substance, Succinylcholine Chloride, did they elucidate on
that?’ I asked.

‘Yes, apparently a favourite tool of the torturer. It keeps a person suspended in paralysis but they
can still see and hear what is going on. Just fancy being told you are going to be strung up in a