After the Silence: Inspector Rykel Book 1 (Amsterdam Quartet) Read Online Free Page A

stood and turned to the men, knowing he couldn’t put it off any longer.
    A plane tore a white line in the sky beyond the body.
    ‘Get him down.’
    ‘How? He’s at least two metres out, and the rope in that thing over there’ – the forensic pointed to the winch – ‘is no way long enough to get him down to the ground.’
    Jaap stepped back over and eased the French window open with his toe. The rope shifted, causing the body to swing. He heard a gasp from someone down below just as Kees made his way over.
    ‘We could just drop him,’ said Kees, peering down at the crowd below. ‘There’s a fat guy down there who’d break his fall.’
    ‘Let’s try my way first,’ said Jaap turning to the forensics. ‘Get something to lasso his feet, we can pull him in if one of you lets out the rope in the winch.’
    The forensics set about his order whilst Jaap and Kees grabbed some latex gloves, and helped bring the body in through the window. Once inside they laid him on to a sheet of plastic and pulled him further into the room, face down.
    A cluster of white-tipped pimples crested the body’s right buttock.
    ‘Nice ass,’ said Kees.
    No one laughed.
    ‘On three,’ said Jaap, squatting down and grabbing the body’s shoulders. But as the body turned, and they laid it down on its back he could see there was something wrong.
    Something jammed in the body’s mouth.
    He crouched down. The smell, despite the cold conditions outside, was already intense. The forensic undid the noose, revealing a neck mottled with wine-purple bruises.
    ‘Looks like he was strangled before being hung up,’ said the forensic tracing the lowest edge of markings. ‘It’s a larger area than the rope would cause.’
    ‘Makes sense I guess,’ said Kees. ‘Easier to swing a dead body out, less thrashing around.’
    But why hang him outside if he was dead already?
thoughtJaap as he looked closer, the bruises darker on the right side of the neck. He could see the object in the body’s mouth was a phone.
    ‘Get it out,’ he said as he stood, making room.
    The forensic reached forward and tried to pull the phone out but it kept knocking on the inside of the body’s teeth. He shifted his weight and used both hands to prise apart the jaws. They cracked and Jaap winced.
    ‘Careful.’
    The forensic just grunted and handed it to him. It was a cheap clamshell and as he flipped it open the screen lit up. On it was a freephone 0900 number which had yet to be dialled.
    He passed it to Kees and pulled out his own phone.
    ‘Give me the number.’
    Jaap punched it in as Kees read it out, hit the call button and put it on speaker.
    … at the third stroke the time will be o-eight hundred hours and fifty-three minutes …
    Jaap felt something tighten in his throat.
    ‘What else is on the phone?’ he asked.
    Kees spent a few moments exploring.
    ‘No text messages, only three numbers in the address book, and the same in the recent call lists,’ he said still looking at the screen, the light shining on his face, making him look pale, sick.
    ‘Names?’
    ‘No, just numbers.’
    ‘Really?’
    Kees nodded and Jaap looked down at the body again, thinking about Andreas’ text.
    Looks like he’s right about Friedman
, he thought.
    ‘They’re probably disposables, but check with the phone companies anyway,’ he said to Kees.
    ‘I’ll get someone on it.’
    ‘How about you do it?’
    Kees looked at him before moving over to the window. Jaap could hear his finger hitting the plastic keys as he started dialling.
    I wish Andreas was here instead
, thought Jaap.
    His own phone started to buzz; he saw the station’s number.
    Finally he decides to call me.
    ‘Andreas, where the hell have you been?’
    ‘Jaap, it’s Elsie, I’ve got Smit on the other line for you, hold on.’
    Jaap groaned. The last thing he needed was a conversation with Henk Smit, his boss. He’d been running the station ever since Jaap got promoted to Homicide, and was famous