[b]"Boss, huh?  I like that."[/b]  Rhiannon crossed the room and shook the Consultant's hand enthusiastically.  A lot of detectives disliked working with 'laymen' but that was a foolish attitude; in murder cases, especially ones as unusual as this, having an outsider could help bring things down to earth or come up with refreshing new theories.  [b]"Good to meet you, David.  Rhiannon Jones.  I look forward to seeing what you bring to our team."[/b]

She turned back to the leg and eyed it thoughtfully before walking towards it and gesturing to the limb casually.

[b]"So, David, what do you make of this? There's so much theatre here and this is just the beginning of it. There's blood where there's no body part and no trail and the way the victim was crudely hacked apart... we're either dealing with a serial killer, someone who's suffering a psychotic break or someone who wants it to look like one of the two to throw us off their trail."[/b]

David looked between the Kitchen limb, and the foyer with a stoic outlook. [b]“Well for first impressions, this killer might actually be more methodical than psychotic. Notice the lack of blood trail? Perhaps he or she killed the victim in the foyer, bagged the body , cut it up then hang some around like ornaments. As to why I don’t know, art? Justice? Revenge? Not much to go on so far.”[/b] David paused for a moment scratching his chin. [b]“Or our killer may have killed the victim before he or she set foot in this house, perhaps the scene was a setup for us. To confuse us. But we don’t know enough yet. I doubt any of my conjectures at this point will actually turn it out to be what actually happened”.[/b]

Rhiannon nodded her head in agreement, a slow smile spreading across her face.  [b]"So we agree - to me this looks to be purposefully done although the motive behind it I don't see just yet.  Also I expect the body was... dismembered off-site and then staged here.  Once the ME and CSU have done their stuff we'll have a clearer picture."[/b]

She leaned in close and looked at the leg, observing the feminine shape of the muscles and tendons.  All the evidence certainly seemed to point to the identity of the victim being the lady of the house.  But then where the hell was the head?  And why hide it when displaying all the other parts so overtly?  The whole thing was designed to unsettle those investigating and that in itself worried her; it showed either a crazed mind or a coldly calculating one.

[b]"I think it might be an idea for you and I to talk to the neighbours... well, the neighbours' wives.  This kind of community they'll go to all those pointless community clubs.  Knitting and whatever which they hate doing but their husbands expect them to do.  No wonder they say the Suffragettes suffered in vain."[/b]

David nodded, letting Rhiannon take the lead.

She swept out of the room and out onto the porch, nodding to the still queasy-looking patrol man standing guard outside.  After looking up and down the street she decided to start with the house to their left and strode past the identically painted wooden fences and up to the neighbour's identical door, knocking with her badge at the ready.

Eventually a wizened old lady pulled the door open and peered over the rims of her half-moon spectacles.

[b]"I suppose you're here to ask some questions about the lady next door?  Come on in, I've prepared the tea..."[/b]

Rhiannon was left speechless for a moment as the elderly lady turned and whisked back into the house with surprising energy, glancing at David with an expression that emphasised the novelty of the situation, before accepting the lady's invitation and entering the house.