Condemned by R.C. Bridgestock (love books to read TXT) 📕

A strange tingling sensation dispersed from the top of Charley’s scalp. It ran along the sides of her skull in prickly tendrils, and she watched as the blood slowly drained from Annie’s face. She heard a hollow laugh escape from her throat. ‘It’s a sign of death,’ she said in a whisper.

‘What is?’ said Annie.

‘A jackdaw coming down a chimney.’

Annie looked about her. ‘Stop it!’

Charley forced a smile. ‘Go grab a coffee. You’re hungry, and no doubt tired.’

Annie walked towards the door, and Charley gasped when she thought she felt a featherlight touch on her cheek.

Annie turned ‘What’s wrong?’ she demanded.

‘Nothing, I just thought I felt something touch my face.’ Charley rubbed her fingers across her cheek to convince herself there was nothing there.

Annie’s lip trembled. ‘I can’t see anything.’ She smiled. ‘You’re probably tired and hungry too.’ The colour had come back to her face, and Charley was glad, but, hearing a loud cawing they were both startled. They both looked up, and then burst out laughing.

‘I think I prefer a mischievous Hobgoblin, to bloody jackdaw nonsense,’ Annie said.

Davis Chevelle seemingly oblivious to the drama, could be heard speaking into his recording device. ‘Attached to his left tibia is a metal plate which tells me that he has been subject to an operation; he is still in possession of teeth, which gives us two immediate stabs at possible early identification.’ Charley sat down next to Annie, put her head back and shut her eyes. She concentrated on the drone of Davis’s voice. ‘The right arm is tangled in the ribcage, and the left arm outstretched on the floor.’ Then with his head slightly bent, Davis walked out of the confines of the cavern. ‘Who’d have thought we’d have two concealed bodies, yards apart, and both murdered, in the same house…?’ he said before he saw their faces. ‘What’s up with you two, you look as if you’ve seen a ghost!’ He laughed at his own joke and turned his head in the direction of the body. ‘There’s no doubt in my mind it’s a dump site, Inspector,’ he said. ‘I’m all finished here.’ Davis moved swiftly to gather his belongings together. ‘It’s all yours.’

Annie looked pensive. ‘I’ve been thinking… How did anyone know the tunnel existed, if it’s not on the plans?’ said Annie. ‘Let’s face it, it was more by luck than management that it was found by Joe and Finn, wasn’t it?’

Charley shuddered, a goose having just walked over her grave, as her granny would have said. ‘Maybe that’s how it was found by those who dumped the body there too – just by accident.’

‘Mmm…’ Annie didn’t sound convinced.

Davis picked up his stepladders and walked towards them.

Annie was still in questioning mode. ‘I know we have a full skeleton here, but say we just discovered one human bone. What can that actually tell you?’ she asked as they removed their coveralls at the door.

‘What do you mean?’ he said, rubbing his face with a crumpled handkerchief that he’d extracted from his shirt pocket.

‘Well, can it tell you how tall the person was, for instance?’ she said.

‘Depends what bone you found. Say for argument’s sake it was a femur, that’s the thighbone, which makes up about a quarter of the length of the human body. From this I would be able to calculate the approximate height of the person that it belonged to.’

‘Wow! I already know you can tell if an injury was caused before or after death, but how?’

‘Trauma seen in skeletal remains falls basically into three categories. Antemortem trauma includes injuries during life, and in death, the evidence of healing still exists.’

‘Like the operation to insert the metal plate you just mentioned?’

Davis nodded. ‘Perimortem traumas are injuries sustained at or around the time of death. As in this case, the skull shows evidence of a gunshot wound, and here I can say with certainty that this injury was the cause of death.’

‘Could it be possible that the guy shot himself?’ she asked.

Davis shook his head, ‘Not in this case. The point of entry is directly into the back of his head. Now, if the wound had been at the temple, or if he had put the barrel into his mouth and fired the gun, then that’s a different kettle of fish. That injury could possibly be self-inflicted.’

Annie frowned. ‘Possibly?’

‘Never assume!’ chanted Charley.

‘How come not certainly?’ said Annie.

‘Although a wound to the side of the head, or via the mouth suggests suicide, I have known perpetrators grip their victim’s hand on the murder weapon, and, shall we say, assist in pulling the trigger?’

‘There wouldn’t be anything left above the jaw if he had shot himself in the mouth. I went to one such incident which resulted in our scraping an eye off the ceiling!’ Charley interjected.

Annie’s face blanched.

‘All wounds help us understand when, how and with what they were caused,’ Davis paused for effect. ‘Of course, what they can’t tell us is why. That’s your job to find out,’ said Davis.

‘Dead people really do talk,’ said Annie.

‘They certainly do,’ said Davis, eager it seemed to get the body to the lab for further scrutiny.

‘As a matter of interest, when you were in the tunnel, Mr Chevelle, could you make a guess as to where it ends?’ asked Charley.

‘No, that tunnel must run for some distance.’ He arched his eyebrows. ‘No doubt the tunnel will now be the subject of a further search once we extract our man?’

‘That’s right,’ said Charley. She looked Annie up and down. Annie shook her head, a look of horror on her face. ‘Oh no, NO! There is no way I’m going down there!’

Charley’s face was pensive. Unable to keep up the act, she winked at the younger detective and her face broke out into a grin. ‘Don’t worry, kid, I wasn’t thinking of sending you. Lucky for you, you don’t annoy me enough! We’ll be calling on the experts.’

With a vast amount of work to do, Charley was more