Read Online Tell Tale by Mark Sennen - Free Book Online Page A

and brambles scoured her skin.’
    ‘Cause of death?’
    ‘Haven’t got a whiskers. There don’t seem to be any major external injuries. I guess she could have been strangled. Do you want to take a look?’
    Savage nodded and went to find a suit and all the other paraphernalia. Suitably attired, she followed Layton down the little trail he had prepared. Festoon lights had been hung between the trees, creating a corridor of luminance which wound through the woodland, almost as if the path was leading to a fairy grotto. At the end of the path the burning glare of several halogen bulbs turned night into day. Beyond the circle of light the surrounding forest disappeared into utter blackness. As they approached the CSIs, Layton put out a hand.
    ‘Close enough, Charlotte,’ Layton said. ‘We haven’t completed our detailed search of the immediate area yet.’
    Savage nodded and stared through the undergrowth to where white skin contrasted with black peat. The body lay half in a drainage ditch, the face partially submerged in the dirty water. The right eye was open and gazed out across a film of scum and forest detritus, while the left was below the surface. The girl’s peroxide-blonde hair floated in a fan-like pattern, individual strands moving as a slight current washed past. A blob of dark mud had splattered one cheek and several pine needles had drifted into a nostril. Savage looked closer. The girl’s body was tumbled in an odd way. The right leg came out at a weird angle to the body while the right arm was twisted underneath her head. A contortionist would have struggled to adopt such a pose.
    ‘It’s a strange position,’ Savage said. ‘Whatever the killer meant by posing her like that is beyond me. If she was posed.’
    ‘I can’t see how she fell with the arm behind her head,’ Layton said. He gestured at the trees and the undergrowth. ‘It would take some effort to force it into that position. I don’t think it could have happened by accident.’
    Savage noticed the scratches Layton had mentioned. They were shallow enough to have been caused by brambles or cat’s claws or fingernails. They certainly weren’t terminal. Her eyes followed the outstretched leg from the toe up to the thigh to the dark triangle of pubic hair.
    ‘Any sign of sexual assault?’
    ‘No.’ Layton shook his head. ‘Nothing I can see from an external examination. Small blessing that it is.’
    Savage moved her attention to where the woodland encroached on the circle of light. There were no paths and the scrub was dense. Layton was right, Ana couldn’t have run fast enough to cause her limbs to twist round in the way they lay. Yet the scratches suggested she had been running. Savage tried to imagine her last moments. How long had Ana been stumbling around the woodland naked? Had she managed to avoid the killer for hours and then somehow come across him again? She’d fallen and the killer had pounced on her. As his hands had closed around her delicate neck she’d screamed and thrashed. The killer had hit her and then pinned her leg with his body. In the struggle her arm had been twisted behind her neck. Maybe the killer had used his forearm to crush the girl’s windpipe while the other hand held her arm. And yet, Savage reminded herself, none of that had happened here. If Layton was correct the body had been dumped recently. It was even possible Ana had been alive as the teams had searched for her that very morning.
    ‘Any sign of which way the killer came?’
    ‘No,’ Layton said. The CSI sighed. ‘In fact I can’t find any meaningful footprints. That could be because he – or she – came up the drainage ditch. I’m thinking of damming the ditch and draining the water to see if I can find any footprints. The only other conclusion would be that she’d flown here by magic, right?’
    Savage nodded. ‘Where’s Nesbit got to? The sooner we can get the time of death the better.’
    ‘On his way,’ Layton said. He