Bloodstream Read Online Free

you’ve also successfully closed cases against a number of other people, and had your face in the
Liverpool Echo
more times than Ricky Tomlinson. And you wonder why you might be recognisable?’
    ‘It’s not like I was doing those things on my own. You were with me, remember?’
    ‘I know when to hide from the cameras.’
    ‘I wish I did.’
    Forensic teams were already in place. Murphy was about to step inside the house when a voice shouted from within.
    ‘Suit up.’
    ‘Sorry,’ Murphy called back, turning round to see a smirking Rossi behind him.
    ‘How long have you been doing this again?’
    ‘Obviously not long enough,’ Murphy replied.
    A few minutes later, looking like extras from a film about pandemics, they entered the final resting place of Chloe Morrison and Joe Hooper.
    The smell attacked them as soon as they crossed the threshold. Decay and blood. Rotting meat and something Murphy could never put his finger on.
    The house was long abandoned; gutted and ready to be pulled down and replaced by whatever the building group who now owned this part of Anfield decided. More houses, Murphy guessed. Only smaller, and using worse building materials, but with a nice modern finish to the kitchen and bathroom to con those buying or renting the properties. Walls as thin as paper, small rooms dressed up to look big enough for growing families. Similar developments were everywhere, popping up on disused parcels of land across Merseyside, making money for invisible directors on multiple boards.
    ‘Together until the end. Kinda nice if you don’t think about it too hard.’
    Murphy didn’t respond to Rossi, who was peering past people into the room in which the couple had been found.
    The house may have felt abandoned, but Murphy walked through on the off-chance the person responsible had left behind something obvious. A three-bedroomed terrace, with nothing but damp in the walls and mould growing over old wallpaper. He walked upstairs, the smell above almost as wretched as the one below. The main bedroom which overlooked the road outside was bare, its wooden floorboards broken in places, newspaper pushing its way through cracks to the surface. The second bedroom was no different apart from an airing cupboard in the corner which had once housed the boiler, now taken apart and capped off.
    The box bedroom was different.
    At first, Murphy was surprised that only one officer was taking pictures of the walls carefully, methodically. Then he realised the space within the room was really only big enough for one person. There was no natural light due to the boarded-up window so a small beam from a stand-up light had to suffice.
    Magazine covers, articles and newspaper clippings covered most of one wall inside the room. From his position by the doorway, Murphy could just about see the other walls were bare. The forensic tech took photographs from all angles to capture the entire spectrum of pictures.
    Murphy spied the headlines nearest to the room entrance, taking note of the names displayed in black capitals.
    CHLOE AND JOE’S TICKET TO PARADISE
    CHLOE AND JOE REVEAL ALL
    CHLOJOE – WE WANT A FAMILY
     
    ‘Looks like a stalker’s collage,’ Rossi said, looking over his shoulder. ‘Some of these are from when they first started going out. They go back a long time. Must have been collecting them.’
    ‘I didn’t keep up, to be honest,’ Murphy replied. ‘Not my sort of thing.’
    ‘You didn’t watch the show?’ Rossi said, a sceptical look plastered across her Mediterranean features. ‘Everyone did.’
    Murphy shook his head. ‘Couldn’t bring myself to. You know I can’t stand hearing Scouse accents on TV. Not even my own.’
    ‘You missed out then. You wouldn’t believe some of the things these people got up to. Made my uni days look like I was in a nunnery. Not those two though. They were a bit different. Found each other quite early on and that changed them I suppose . . .’
    Murphy held up a gloved