Play Dead (D.I. Kim Stone, #4)(8)

‘Flowers?’ she asked.

His eyes followed her gaze. ‘Yes, just a mark of respect from us.’

Kim liked the small touch.

He stood at the head of the graves and peered down. They all followed suit.

The grave to the right held Vera, whose body displayed the incision of a post-mortem. The flesh was immersed in water and Kim noticed the grave was angled towards them.

She looked towards Jack who was also immersed in water but there was no post-mortem incision and no angle to the grave.

‘We have much to learn about insect activity in the water,’ Professor Wright explained. ‘Vera is immersed in water being fed from the brook. We’ve cut a channel and angled her grave away from the stream.’

Kim swatted a fly away from her ear and looked to the small slip of moving water five feet away from the tip of the graves. Now she understood the angle. It was so the stream water would drain away from the water source, ensuring that no contaminants from the body re-entered the slow-moving brook.

‘We take any opportunity to use the elements around us,’ he stated and then raised an eyebrow. ‘The decision to site the Texas facility at Freeman Ranch was questioned due to the presence of vultures but this now provides a new area of study focussing on the effect of scavenging on human decomposition.’

Kim nodded her understanding. She was all for using the resources available but vultures?

‘Jack is immersed in rainwater so his liquid contains no insects, unlike the water in with Vera.’

‘Bugger off,’ Dawson said, swatting the air around his head.

Professor Wright smiled at Kim’s colleague. ‘Never complain at seeing a blowfly, young man. They don’t fly below fifty-two degrees Fahrenheit so it’s a good indication the weather is warming up.’

‘Well, this one’s a bit keen,’ Dawson moaned.

It wasn’t the only one Kim realised as another one tried to land on Bryant’s shoulder.

She looked down at the bodies in the water. The flies were paying no attention to them.

‘Occupational hazard of what we do, I’m afraid,’ the professor said. ‘Okay, on to the next.’

They stepped away from Jack and Vera and began heading across the site to the western edge of the property. Kim looked back to see if the flies were following. They were not. They had retreated to an area just beyond the brook. Kim could see they were not alone. Multiple flies hovered and then dived with the excitement of a new discovery.

Kim saw the professor was guiding them towards two males in the distance surveying a lifeless form positioned above ground encased by a chicken-wire guard.

She hesitated. ‘Professor, could we just go back…’

‘Aww… guv, let’s just keep going towards those two guys over there,’ Bryant said, with a glint of amusement in his eyes.

She had no idea what the source of his amusement was, and she didn’t much care. If there was a fresher body for her team to view, where they could observe the beginning of insect activity, then she was ready to hop off the official tour and learn something useful.

She turned and started walking back towards Jack and Vera.

‘Inspector, there’s nothing else over there,’ Professor Wright called.

She covered the ground quickly and was back at the two graves by the time he caught up with her.

‘I’m not sure what you want—’

‘Don’t worry, I’m sure it won’t be too much for my team to handle,’ she said, wading through the slow-moving stream. The water reached above her ankles. No threat to the leather biker boots but the bottoms of her black canvas jeans were sodden. She didn’t mind. Water dried.

‘It’s not that, Inspector. I’m just not sure what you’re hoping to…’

His words trailed away as they rose out of the brook on the other side and discovered the source of the insect activity.

A fully clothed woman with a smashed-in face stared, unseeing, up to the blue sky.

A hundred flies hovered above the blood-covered face.

‘Can you tell us what you hope to learn from this one, Professor?’ Kim asked as her team finally caught up with them.

The professor’s face had drained of all colour while his eyes remained fixed on the body.

There was a long pause before he finally answered. ‘I’m sorry, Inspector, but I can’t tell you a thing because this body is not one of ours.’





Five





‘Kev, go find me anything to help us cordon off this area. Stace, go back to the Portakabin and look at the footage to see if there’s anything at all that helps us.’

The professor shook his head, slowly, his eyes still fixed on the body. ‘The CCTV doesn’t cover…’

‘We’ll see,’ she said, nodding towards her team. They turned and headed up the hill. For her, the shock of the discovery had worn off and now it was time to get busy. The professor still appeared to be reeling.

Thoughts of the cases on her desk faded from her mind. The victims in every one of them were still alive, injured but still breathing.

From the corner of her eye she could see that the two figures in the distance were moving towards them.

‘Bryant, keep them away. I don’t care what they’re consulting on. This one’s not for public view.’