Read Online Cut Dead by Mark Sennen - Free Book Online

don’t think so, Charlotte. Whoever removed the heads has most likely kept them as trophies.’
    ‘Along with the genitals?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Great. If we ever find this guy – assuming it is a guy – remind me to let you enter his property first.’
    ‘It’ll be a pleasure.’ Layton turned from the edge of the bridge and grinned. ‘But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.’
    They walked on and the bridge ended with another stone section, the line arriving at the far bank where woodland came down to the edge of the estuary mud. To the left of the track a chain-link fence hung loose from a set of concrete posts. A light push and you’d be able to hold the fence down while you climbed over it. Even if you were carrying a body. Beyond the fence a rough path wriggled past a number of mature trees and crossed an area filled with saplings. On the other side of the young trees a swathe of mud and gravel ran away from them parallel to the railway line.
    ‘That track runs to Tamerton Lake,’ Layton said. ‘From there a lane goes to Tamerton Foliot where you’re right on the edge of the city. If your hunch is correct then the killer is away in minutes. Anything goes wrong and he gets spotted burying a body on the peninsula we’d be setting up roadblocks and checking vehicles in totally the wrong place while he hotfoots it over here.’
    ‘Clever,’ Savage said, ‘but I wonder if there’s more to it than that.’
    ‘Some connection to the village, you mean?’
    ‘If he just wanted to dispose of a body there are many places more remote. We’re going to need to trawl through all the Candle Cake Killer stuff.’
    ‘I don’t recall any of the physical evidence linking to this particular area, but I’ll check.’
    ‘John?’ Savage stood at the fence and pointed to the top wire where several pieces of thread had snagged.
    ‘Trying to do me out of a job?’ Layton smiled and then came over, bent and examined the material. ‘Looks like denim. I wouldn’t mind betting this is a shortcut home for kids from the peninsula who’ve missed the last train or bus.’
    ‘There.’ Savage pointed at something half-hidden behind a tree. She clambered over the fence and stumbled through the undergrowth to a nearby medium-sized oak. A chain encompassed the trunk and then wrapped itself several times around the top tube of a bicycle. A padlock secured the two ends of the chain. Oldish but well-oiled, the bike a little rusty but the tyres inflated and in good condition. ‘I think you’re right, but it’s not just kids. Someone is using the route regularly, maybe as a commute to work.’
    ‘Crafty bugger.’
    ‘Well, it would save them miles by going this way. A quick walk down to the bridge, across and then take the bike along that.’ Savage looked through the trees to where the track snaked away from them. ‘It’s only a mile or so to the edge of the city.’
    ‘Unlikely they would have seen anything.’
    ‘Unlikely, but possible. They could have been doing the journey for years.’
    Layton joined her at the tree for a moment before moving off towards the track.
    ‘Get a four-by-four down here,’ he said as he peered up and down the rutted surface. ‘Not a car though, not without a risk of getting stuck. And an hour from here and you’re anywhere in Devon.’
    ‘So if my hypothesis is correct, the killer drives in from this end at night, takes the body over the bridge when it’s quiet and there are no trains, and buries it in the field. That part of the farm is well away from the farmhouse so they’ve got several hours of darkness to do their work. The area is covered with scrub and small trees so the dump site is shielded from the field. As Joanne Black said, she or her farmworker could pass within a few metres and not see anything.’
    ‘Jesus.’ Layton pulled his phone out. ‘We’re going to have to do a fingertip search of the railway line and the whole of this area. Been a year ago or more, but given