Read Online Malice in Cornwall by Graham Thomas - Free Book Online

we turn her over?”
    Butts cleared his throat as if to say something, but then he glanced at Powell and apparently thought better of it.
    Powell nodded. “Bill, give me a hand, would you?”
    Between the two of the them, alternately lifting oneside of the bag and then the other, as if engaged in some ghastly slow motion game of blanket toss, they soon had the body flipped over onto its front. The back panel of the life jacket was more or less intact, with a nylon loop attached to the center just below the remnant of the collar. Through the loop was tied a short length of frayed rope.
    “That's interesting,” Black ventured.
    Powell considered the rope for a moment and then turned to Harris. “Well, Dr. Harris, what do you make of it?”
    Harris scratched his head. “Before I offer an opinion, I must emphasize that I am not a forensic pathologist, just a simple GP.” A self-satisfied gurgle here from Chief Inspector Butts. “However, certain points are obvious. Others are not so obvious and will require elucidation by someone more qualified than myself.” He paused to give Powell the opportunity to respond.
    Powell nodded. “Understood. However, I'm confident you'll be able to shed some light on the matter,” he added graciously.
    “Very well.” Harris looked down at the body again. “I'd hazard a guess that it can't have been in the sea for much more than a week or so. There is very little bloating. The marbling effect, that is, the prominent blood vessels, as well as the large bullae, or blisters—there, on the buttocks, for instance—indicate that she's been dead for several days.”
    Powell frowned. “The so-called Riddle of Penrick was first sighted two weeks ago yesterday. Yet you say this one has only been dead about a week. It doesn't seem to fit.”
    “I could be wrong, Chief Superintendent. All I can sayis that the general state of decomposition does not appear to be that well advanced. However, in cases like this, a precise determination of the time of death can be problematic. It basically depends on ambient temperature and exposure to sunlight. Given overcast conditions and relatively cool air and water temperatures, one could perhaps stretch it a few days more. I'm afraid that's the best I can do.”
    Powell considered this information for a moment. “Wouldn't you say, Dr. Harris, that the absence of limbs is striking?”
    ‘That's rather curious, actually. It's not as if the body has decomposed to the point where bits and pieces have started to fall off. Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to the head and left arm—sharks, perhaps? The legs, however, are a bit of a puzzler.”
    Powell was a bit puzzled himself. Gourmet sharks with a penchant for the upper regions? “What do you mean?”
    Harris spoke in a monotone. “The bones look like they've been sawn through cleanly at the knees.”
    Powell was incredulous. “Sawn? With a saw. you mean?”
    “It looks like it.” Had Harris's manner stiffened?
    “Well, that certainly puts a different light on matters,” Powell mused. “And then there's the rope.”
    Harris shrugged.
    Powell suddenly remembered the sample he had collected the previous night. He fingered the vial in his pocket. The Day-Glo bit, as Butts had put it. “When I first saw the body, it seemed to be giving off a faint phosphorescent light, just as it was described in the newspaper reports. Can you think of any explanation?”
    “No
natural
explanation, if that's what you mean. If you hadn't seen it yourself, Chief Superintendent, I might have concluded that the power of suggestion was a factor.”
    “Who wrote the bloody newspaper stories?” Butts muttered.
    Powell reddened. “Yes, well, I collected a sample. I'll have it analyzed straight away.” His initial doubts about the increasingly mutinous Chief Inspector had begun to blossom into a feeling of full-blown animosity. He turned abruptly to face Sergeant Black. “We'd better get Sir Reggie out here to