Read Online HS03 - A Visible Darkness by Michael Gregorio - Free Book Online Page A

that interested him, leaving the rest alone.
    Holding my breath I edged closer to the chasm.
    ‘The jawbone has been cut out,’ I murmured, angling my head, taking advantage of the flickering candlelight to verify the point. ‘I am not an anatomist, but . . . well, you can see the damage clearly enough. These tissues here . . . They would have held the jawbone fixed in place. They are dangling in shreds, like strips of torn paper against the inner walls of the larynx. The teeth are missing, too.’
    The teeth . . .
    Not one remained in the upper jaw.
    ‘Where was she found?’ I asked.
    Katiuscka Rodendahl had been found on the beach beyond the military boundary. She had not presented herself for roll-call at the start of the working day, but no one had attached much importance to that fact.
    ‘They pass through our pickets like shadows,’ he added. ‘She probably left the compound during the night, as many of them do. We search the ones who leave by the gate, of course, but it’s the Devil’s own job. I can hardly trust my men. These girls have a way with lonely Frenchmen far from home.’ He laughed sardonically. ‘They make for Nordcopp village. No one there would chase them away. These girls have money . . .’
    ‘Is that why she was murdered, do you think? For money?’
    A grumbling laugh rumbled out from his throat.
    ‘Amber is more valuable than money, Herr Procurator. Gold comes cheaper. We carry out random body-searches and they yield significant results. But for every piece that we find on them, another bit goes out unnoticed. The traders in Nordcopp are waiting to buy it from them. Amber-trading is against the law, but when did the law stop people trying? Thieving is an art on the Baltic coast. If you hope to stop the theft, you must change the method of collection. And that’s what I intend to do. There’ll be machines all along the coast.’ He made an extravagant gesture with his outstretched hand towards infinity. ‘Machines don’t steal.’
    I had nothing to say on that count.
    ‘Well?’ he growled again. ‘Don’t you want to see the rest of the body?’
    I wanted nothing less in the world.
    My hand was shaking as I threw back the fur coverlet.
    The corpse was naked. And cold, though I barely touched it. The orange glow of a million candles would never warm her up. The body might have been sculpted in grey marble that was veined and mottled with impurities. Light bounced off the taut surface of her skin, leaving shadows in the rolling contours of her well-formedmuscles, firm breasts, strong arms, powerful legs. No outward damage was apparent. None at all, indeed. It was as if the torso and the limbs were of no concern to the person who had killed her.
    ‘She was handsome,’ the colonel murmured quietly. ‘Most of them are.’
    His eyes were fixed on the triangle formed by her stomach and thighs. A thicket of curly dark hair cloaked her sex. I had heard men gossip over pipes and ale, naming the peasant girls, pronouncing judgement on the qualities which proclaimed that this or that maid would make the perfect wife and bear a dozen children.
    I thought of Helena’s slender arms, tiny wrists, long neck. Her bulging belly made her seem more fragile still. This woman and my wife did not belong to the same species. They might have come from different worlds. This girl was a big, strong physical presence, even in death. I put all thoughts of Helena aside, and tried to think of nothing but the woman stretched out on the table.
    There were no open wounds on the body with the exception of some half-healed nicks on her hands and arms. She had cut herself while working, probably. Like a priest preparing for the Holy Communion, I put on a pair of thin kid gloves which I took from my pocket. Beginning with the arms, moving over the hips, I continued down along the legs, applying pressure with my fingers as I went, searching for broken bones, producing a volley of light cracks as I tested the