Bone Machine Read Online Free

professional and sexless a manner as she could manage. Nothing that would detract from
     doing her job. Straight hair, straight clothes. She didn’t just have to compete with her male colleagues; she had to be twice
     the men they were. However, after work, her time, what there was of it, was her own. And Turnbull wasn’t used to seeing her,
     made up and dressed up.
    ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘As it happens.’
    ‘Anyone I know?’ He was almost smirking, unable to contain his surprise at the revelation that his boss was also a woman.
    ‘No,’ she said. ‘Now let’s concentrate, shall we?’
    ‘OK, then,’ he said, businesslike again. ‘Catch me up.’
    Nattrass looked at him. Hid a smile, even. ‘Have we been watching
CSI
again?’
    Even in the dark she could see him reddening. ‘
NYPD Blue
,’ he mumbled. ‘Repeats on Sky.’
    ‘Right. Well, here’s what I know.’ Nattrass swept the area with her eyes, took in the whole scene. The uniform wasstill hovering at her shoulder, as if unwilling to move too far from her, out of his comfort zone. ‘What’s your name?’
    ‘Snell,’ he said on the second attempt. ‘PC Snell.’
    ‘Right. Well, we received a 999 call just after nine thirty. Saying a body had been sighted in the cemetery. Anonymous. No
     name given.’
    ‘Tracing the call?’ asked Turnbull.
    ‘Of course.’ If the call came from a callbox, then the caller may have been picked up on CCTV. If it was a mobile, the caller
     could perhaps be traced by billing. A landline likewise. If the call came from the killer, then all bets were off. ‘Never
     know, we might get lucky.’ She looked around the towerblocks. ‘We’ll have a word with the community managers in the morning.
     Get their teams to go around, do a door to door. See how that goes. Maybe think about setting up a mobile unit if all else
     fails.’
    Turnbull nodded. ‘Better them than us. Land of the bloody blind for us around here.’
    Nattrass didn’t comment. ‘Anyway, PC Snell here was the first on the scene. Saw the state of the body and called for the area
     to be cordoned off. Quick thinking.’
    PC Snell took the praise with a small smile.
    Turnbull turned to him. Asked him if he had seen anyone in the area. Snell shook his head. ‘Just a couple at the bus stop.
     We’ve taken statements.’ He swallowed, finding his voice. ‘The first they knew of it was when I questioned them.’ They had
     been dismissed, he said, a contact address taken. They weren’t serious contenders for killers.
    ‘What does the body look like?’ asked Turnbull.
    Snell looked as if he was about to be sick again. He held it down. Described what he could remember. ‘Young, blonde. Naked.’
     His voice began to shake again. ‘Cut … several wounds. I didn’t count how many … and the eyes, the mouth …’
    ‘What about them?’ asked Turnbull.
    Nattrass stepped in. ‘Sewn shut. Not prettily, either.’
    Turnbull expelled air. It seemed to leave his body in a hard mass. ‘Jesus …’ He shook his head as if to shake loose the image
     that was starting to take up residence there. ‘Anything else? The body arranged in some kind of shape?’
    Snell shook his head. ‘I couldn’t tell. She looked … all … contorted.’ He outstretched his fingers into talons. Held them
     rigid. ‘Like that. I didn’t touch it, though.’
    ‘Good work,’ said Nattrass. She and Turnbull exchanged glances.
    ‘A bad one,’ he said.
    ‘They all are,’ she said, ‘but this one is worse than most. Cadaverous spasm, it sounds like. She didn’t go gently.’
    Turnbull suppressed a shudder.
    She sighed. ‘Any more than that, we’ll have to wait for the Home Office bod to get here.’
    ‘Any ID?’
    Snell shook his head. ‘Not that I could see. I didn’t want to—’
    ‘I know,’ said Turnbull, cutting him off. He turned to Nattrass. ‘You think it’s …’ He left the name hanging.
    The facts, unspoken, were embedded in both of their brains.