Chapter Text
Bright and early, indeed, Louis thinks to himself as he exits the underground station and quickly walks the few blocks to the Greater Manchester Police headquarters. And on a Saturday too. The sun isn’t even up, and the only light comes from the orange streetlamps reflecting on the remnants of yesterday’s snow. There was a time when Louis loved snow, got excited at just the prospect of playing in it, but then he’d become an adult and suddenly the trouble it caused became more important than the possible fun. By the time he arrives at the station, his boots are caked with mud and slush, and he stomps them on the doormat, kicking off most of it before walking in further.
“You’re up early,” Sophia, today’s receptionist, chirps.
“Yeah,” Louis grunts. “Is Liam in yet?”
“Haven”t seen him,” she replies and Louis almost wants to smash something because of how happy she always seems. She’s working with the bloody police, gets to see more crime and violence than anyone, sometimes even in the waiting room, and yet she acts like it’s wonderland. “But I did get this one for you.” She reaches behind her and grabs a paper, shoving it towards him over the counter. “Took the liberty of alerting the lab that you’ll be needing them.”
He glances at the paper and mentally does a fistpump when he reads the first few lines, allowing Liam and his team a search warrant for Sarah Saunders house and workplace (which are one and the same, from what Louis’s learned), and sees the signature underneath.
“Marvellous, Sophia. I’ll be in my office, but you can call me when Liam arrives so he doesn’t have to come upstairs. Saves us some time.”
“What’ll save us time?” Liam asks as he steps inside from the other entrance, leading to the station’s parking lot.
“You not having to come upstairs before we leave for the search,” Louis replies seamlessly, holding up the warrant. “You ready to head out, or did you want to grab an awful coffee from the machine first?”
Liam shivers at the thought alone and shakes his head. “No, I’m ready to go. Had coffee at Z– at home this morning already. You know I can’t have too much coffee or my stomach will be upset all day.”
“Getting old, boss,” Louis sing songs, cackling and darting out of his way when Liam growls at the title. “Come on then, I’ve got the address here, and I’ll call the lab techs when we’re on our way.”
The anonymous black van that belongs to the lab techs is already parked in front of the cottage when they arrive, along with a police car. As soon as they get out, they’re greeted by two younger uniformed officers who politely hold the blue and white ribbon up for them to pass underneath. Louis doesn’t think there’ll be anyone trying to trespass, not in this weather and not this far from any lived in neighbourhood, but he knows it’s policy, so he doesn’t comment on it. The front door’s propped open and before they can step inside, Isaac, one of the lab techs, yells at them to put on white protective suits and shoe covers. Liam huffs when he pulls off his coat, Louis following suit to allow them to pull the suits over their clothes.
“What have we got here, then?” Louis asks once he’s fully covered up. He glances around the small cottage, walls lined with shelves holding large glass jars, all labeled neatly. He reads rosemary, holy basilic, rose buds, st John’s wort, melisse, and then gives up at names of what he supposes are more plants of which he doesn’t recognise the names.
“Hundreds of plants,” Michael sighs. “From how neatly everything’s arranged though and opening a few, their labels seem to be correct. There’s also a few unlabeled jars though, which we’ve taken samples off, and over a hundred jars of honey, all sealed. We’re busy taking finger prints, but so far, they all seem to be from the victim. I’ve already compared them to the ones Harry sent us.”
“I’ve found something here,” Isaac calls from the kitchen. “An open jar of herbal tea, unlabeled. And an opened jar of honey too. I’ll take samples of those too.”
“Great,” Louis grumbles. “More technical analyses that’ll take weeks to complete.”
“Sorry for preferring to do a thorough job, Inspector Tomlinson,” Michael teases, and if he wasn’t currently taking samples from a glass jar, Louis would smack his friend over the head.
“It’s remarkably tidy in here,” Liam says, glancing around the living room and into the bedroom. “Can I go in there?” he asks with a nod of his head.
“Sure Chief, go ahead.”
Louis follows Liam into the bedroom, the narrow bed neatly made with simple white sheets and a thick woollen blanket. Liam opens the closet and carefully shifts through the clothes in there with gloved hands. “Look, Lou, all labels are cut out of these too. I think that means we can rule out the killer removing them.”
Louis hums, picking up a simple white shirt and seeing how the label was indeed carefully removed at the seam. “Strange habit,” he mumbles before turning around and leaving the closet to Liam. Instead he pushes open the door to the adjacent bathroom, finding an equally neat set up. There’s a bottle of perfume-free, PH-neutral soap in the shower, as well as a bottle labeled shampoo: amla, shikakai, reetha, fenugreek, rosemary. Other than that, all surfaces are empty, and in the cupboard over the washing table, he finds nothing but a bottle of almond oil, a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste. At least he supposes it’s toothpaste because that’s what the label says.
All in all, this entire search is turning out to be rather disappointing. No signs of any sort of altercation, and everything in the house is neatly arranged and labeled, bar a few exceptions.
“Nothing in there,” Louis tells Liam when he joins him in the bedroom. “You find anything interesting?”
“Apart from the cut out labels, no,” Liam sighs. “Looks like being able to pin an identity on the victim didn’t bring us much closer to finding out what happened to her.”
“Boss!” Michael calls out then. “Found a laptop in the desk drawer!”
Louis’s eyes light up as he looks at Liam. While there’s no guarantee that it’ll bring them any lead, at least it’s evidence they can work on.
“And a phone!”
“Here we go,” Louis tells Liam as he turns to the door and walks into the living room. He pulls out a large plastic bag and a smaller one, holding them up so Michael can drop the laptop in one and the phone in the other. “We’ll take these with us,” he says as he seals them up. “Let us know if you find anything else, yeah?”
“Yup,” Isaac replies. “We’ve got some guys working on the greenhouse in the backyard too, but I don’t think they’ve found anything out of order so far. We’ll keep you posted.”
“Thanks,” Liam says.
Louis calls the computer tech experts on their way back, and by the time they walk into their office, Joshua is already waiting for them, making grabby hands at the evidence bags.
“Everything you can get us, Josh,” Liam tells him. “Every single detail.”
“Got it, Chief Inspector,” Josh quips, heading out with Sarah – or Gaeia– Saunders’s phone and laptop, looking weirdly excited at the prospect of getting to analyse both.
Louis and Liam spend the rest of the afternoon listing everything they know so far on the white board. On top is a picture of Gaeia’s face that was taken when they found her body, flanked by one Louis managed to find on the university’s cached website. The photo of the bee tattoo has been enlarged and is put up at the side.
All objective facts are listed, and next to ‘clothing labels cut out’, Liam scribbles that the same goes for the labels in her closet. Louis does a quick google search, looking for reasons why anyone would do such a thing, and after reading up on it, suggests to Liam that it might have to do with sensory issues.
“It’s a trait that often coincides with disorders on the autism spectrum,” he cites to Liam. “Do you think the fact that her entire home was so neat and tidy might point at an autism spectrum disorder?”
“Not impossible,” Liam offers. “I’ll look into her background some more, why don’t you go and join Josh to see if he’s come up with anything yet? You know how he tends to only bring us everything once he’s fully done instead of sending us anything he finds when he finds it.”
“Cool. I’ll also call Harry again to let him know what we’ve found at the search so far, maybe he can link something.”
“You’re willingly going to call Harry?” Liam asks, lifting one eyebrow.
“Shut up.”