Time To Play by KA Richardson (free children's ebooks online .txt) 📕

Ripping off the mask, she breathed a couple of deep breaths before speaking to Sharpie. ‘There’s another one. Underneath the one on the top, there’s what feels like another plastic sheet with breeze blocks attached.’

‘You sure? Fifteen years on the job and I’ve never had multiple bodies at a dump site. It couldn’t have been the same body?’

‘Nope, too deep. The one on top seems to have snagged on a ledge on the wall, that’s why it’s exposed. The other is offset to the left a little and is at least a foot further down.’

‘OK, hang back a sec with Doc. Let me speak to Ali.’

Crankle Reservoir, South of Sunderland – 16 November

Ali stood on the shore, shaking his head for the hundredth time that day. He’d spoken to his mum who’d taken Elvie home from the station. There was no way he would have been back in time to help her with immigration. He’d rescheduled on the proviso he would ensure she saw the immigration officer when he was present.

He pulled himself back into the now – more than one body did not bode well.

The body of the first girl had been brought to the shore minutes before, and both Kevin Lang and Ben Cassidy were photographing and applying the plastic bags required over the victim’s hands and feet. They were both absorbed in the task, and he knew that Deena and Johnny were already in the car park to deal with the next one. Cass was finishing at an assault in the town, then heading their way too. The full examination of the body would take place in the mortuary under the watchful eye of the pathologist; and Nigel Evans had lucked out again as the on-call pathologist today. He was due to arrive in ten minutes.

Ali watched as Marlo, now connected to the oxygen line, dipped below the surface to help Doc to recover the next body. The chief super had already phoned to say he was on his way to the location: two bodies meant someone had thought very carefully about where to leave them. Ali had never seen anything like it, and he knew that if it hadn’t been for the draining of the reservoir for flood defence work, then it was unlikely these two would ever have been found.

Sharpie had called him to say they would use the sonar to get the precise location of the second body prior to recovery. That was what he figured they were doing now. He hoped that one would be as smooth a recovery.

He’d seen Doc half lift, half push two breeze blocks onto the RIB from the first body before the body itself had been loaded, and that stroppy Connor lad had brought the body to shore. It stood to reason the next one would have similar anti-floatation methods in place.

He couldn’t hear what was said, but he saw Sharpie talk into the RIB’s radio, and the next second Marlo popped above the surface. Both she and Doc swam over to the RIB and leant over the edge with their arms, removing their masks.

For a second he wondered what was being said, and moments later he didn’t have to wonder, Sharpie had been informing the team that the sonar used had picked up five more shapes beneath the water. All immobile, all too big to be a fish, and all of them a similar size and shape.

Holy fucking shit! Five more bodies? They’re taking the piss. That can’t be right. The chief super will have a bloody aneurysm.

Instantly, he headed over to his team to let them know.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Crankle Reservoir, South of Sunderland – 16 November

T he dive team had been working stoically and methodically, recovering the next couple of bodies which were now lined up on the shore. Connor was pulling up the fourth, and the shore was lined with cops and CSIs. To prevent contamination, each body had been allocated its own CSIs, which had meant calling in pretty much everyone on duty force wide. Cass and Kevin, as well as the other supervisor, Jason Knowles, were huddled to one side trying to shelter slightly from the freezing wind that buffeted the scene relentlessly.

The outer cordon had been set up surrounding the car park and the mobile lounge had finally arrived, providing much-needed warmth and hot drinks to the staff on scene. Even Nigel had called in support in the form of another pathologist.

The whole scene had a sombre feel to it. The officers talked in hushed tones, quietly taking in the fact that someone had managed to murder and dump seven bodies under their very noses without it even being noticed. The backlash would be a nightmare when it finally came. He wondered momentarily why one had been dumped in Washington and the rest here, then shook his head. That was something he could look at later.

There wasn’t a lot Ali could do until the bodies had been recovered and he knew more of the circumstances. The three on the shore appeared to be of similar race, all were young, and all had been strangled, judging from the marks still visible around their necks. Each one they pulled out was slightly more decayed than the last – the killer had obviously been active for some time and had taken time between each kill. Ali suspected when the PMs were complete it would indicate some form of sexual assault: it was highly unlikely the girls had been taken for anything but that.

Darkness had already set in, the water becoming black and creepy as the natural light had abated. Large floodlights had been erected around the inner cordon, illuminating the scene so that the investigation could go on. Ali knew the dive team would recover the rest of the bodies before stopping. They would then be taken to the mortuary and the post-mortems arranged.