‘I’ve been running my entire life from my past but I think it’s finally catching up with me.’ The words were written in a red liquid that I dared not look to closely at but suspected it was blood. The second line of the letter was started ‘There are here I don’t know how long’ but then abruptly cut off. I had found the letter on the floor of a house I was investigating. I shivered as I put the letter carefully back where I had found it.

There had been a call by the neighbour for a noise complaint and as I looked round the destroyed room I could see why. There was smashed China, ripped up pillows and sofa cushions, and pages of books littering the mud covered floor. I noted the large heavy footprints, but with a professional hit like this they would most likely have used foot-size changing boots and would have defiantly discarded them in some lake or other body of water.

I noted down as much detail as I could from where I was standing then tried to trace my footsteps back to the door so as not to damage any more evidence, luckily I had worn gloves. I called for back up and the forensics team whilst I put up the crime scene tape over the door and moved onto my next job. Most likely this case would become another unsolved file collecting dust on a shelf and that persons story would never be told.