Read Online When the Music's Over by Peter Robinson - Free Book Online

Banks seemed never to have to bother with all that. No matter what he ate and drank, he stayed as lean and agile as ever. Still, it will catch up with him eventually, Annie thought, with a grim sort of satisfaction.
    â€œSigns of activity” was all Stefan had said when Annie had asked him what they’d found. When she and Gerry finally reached the spot, she saw that another area of the roadside had been cordoned off with police tape, and there were three white-suited CSIs kneeling and swabbing the ground nearby, collecting samples in plastic or paper bags. There was also another faint skid mark in the road, as if a car or van had slowed down quickly, swerved, then speeded up again.
    Even before Stefan pointed out the finer details, Annie could see that the long grass edging the ditch had been flattened and was crusted with dried mud. The dirt along the edge of the road surface was similarly disturbed, and a track continued, almost recognizable as muddy footprints, for several feet in the direction where the body lay.
    â€œSo she was hurt before she got to the place where we found her, where she was killed?” said Annie.
    â€œBe careful,” Stefan said as Annie squatted and leaned toward the ditch. “We found barbed wire and a broken bottle in there. Both were submerged, so we don’t expect anything in the way of trace evidence, but they’ve gone for testing. Some of the cuts on the girl’s side might have been caused by the wire or broken glass.” He gestured to the fencing above the drystone wall. “It was obviously discarded when this was added. No doubt one of the farmers had problems with kids getting in scaring his sheep or whatever.”
    â€œWhat are you saying, Stefan?” Annie asked. “That she was in the ditch here?” She was glad to see a sheen of sweat on the crime-scene manager’s handsome face. At least someone else was human, and thatit was the ever-so-dreamy, ever-so-cool Stefan Nowak was even better.
    â€œIf you observe the way the dirt and grass are disturbed here, I’d say it indicates that someone climbed out of this ditch onto the road and starting walking north, back towards the Eastvale road. The water’s dried up, but you can see the outlines her muddy feet made. No shoes. And it seems as if she was limping. I’m saying there’s a strong likelihood it was our girl. If she was naked, she would have been covered in filthy ditchwater and mud, like the girl’s body back up the road. And she would also show evidence of barbed wire and broken glass cuts, as the body does. If you move closer, you can also see that a handful of grass has been pulled out right there.” He pointed. Annie could see it. “To my thinking, if someone crawled out of the ditch, they had to get in there in the first place. It’s an explanation. She went in here, and for some reason, she tried to get a hold on the grass, perhaps to prevent herself falling in or help haul herself out.”
    â€œSo she was moving fast when she went in?”
    â€œPossibly. I’d say so. Rolling too fast to stop herself. And you saw the hip injury. Dr. Burns says it’s probably broken. A fall could cause an injury like that, if she bumped it on the road surface, for example. You know what I’m getting at, don’t you, Annie?”
    â€œSomeone chucked her in the ditch, most likely from a moving vehicle. You can see where it skidded on the verge close to where she came out. The grass is flattened in a direction that indicates the van was traveling south. She climbed out again, after getting a mud bath and cutting herself up a bit, then started walking back the way she’d come—hence the muddy footprints—most likely hoping for a lift home. Which means she wasn’t actually beaten to death until later, farther up. Unless she simply collapsed and died of her injuries.”
    â€œI’d say she was most likely killed by the