Dying Bad Read Online Free Page B

ma’am.’
    â€˜And there was no one else around? You didn’t see or hear anything? Before, during, after?’
    â€˜No, ma’am, not here, anyway.’ Noise, he told her, had filtered through from surrounding streets, traffic passing, people laughing, footsteps. It was Friday night in the city, go figure. So why didn’t he look too convinced. Was it possible he’d been so fazed he was scared something or someone had slipped the net?
    â€˜OK, Phil. If anything comes back . . .’ It didn’t need spelling out and he’d give a formal statement later. Thank God for CCTV though, they’d chase the footage soon as. There was half decent coverage round these parts. In theory, there should be something on tape. But what had they got on their hands? Random attack, premeditated murder, booze-fuelled fight or another mugging gone belly-up? The injuries here weren’t dissimilar to the previous incidents but that meant little without corroborating evidence.
    She watched Ryan join the end of a slow-moving line of officers in dark overalls. Seven or eight men and women head down, shoulder-to-shoulder, heavy duty torches trained on the ground. It put Sarah in mind of a Spielberg movie. All they needed was an alien or two, maybe a bit of dry ice. She shivered again. If it got much colder, they’d soon have the real thing. She suspected the current search grid was too wide. The street was full of the usual crap: butt ends, bus tickets, chewing gum, chips. There’d be a fingertip search at first light and they’d need to get a move on, the road couldn’t stay closed indefinitely. Once the body was removed and the FSI guys moved in, hopefully the chances of turning up something more significant would increase. She blew her cheeks out on a sigh. Wouldn’t say no to the murder weapon.
    â€˜Blimey. That was from the depths, DI Quinn.’ Richard Patten was walking towards her, medical case in hand, glint in eye. ‘I thought you were happy in your work. Freezing your butt off all hours of the day and night. Keeping our streets safe.’
    â€˜Happy? I’m delirious.’
    â€˜I could probably give you something for that?’ Deadpan.
    Her wide smile was the first for a while. She found Patten attractive and sensitive, a rare combination in her cop circle. Tall and lean with dark hair that fell into a floppy fringe, he invariably dressed casually, usually wore T-shirts you could read. She respected him and was pretty sure the feeling was mutual.
    â€˜I’ll tell you what you can give me, Rich.’ Mental cringe. God, that came out wrong.
    â€˜You’ll be after an early steer?’
Was his lip curved?
She walked him to his beat-up old Land Rover where a grizzled black Labrador stared mournfully through the back window. Opening the driver’s door, Patten said he’d try and schedule the post-mortem for mid-morning.
Good man.
He knew she’d have to attend and any earlier would be a pain.
    â€˜I’ll tell you this though, Sarah: the killer doesn’t do half measures. That’s a hell of a savage attack back there.’ He slid his case across, climbed in effortlessly after it. ‘The facial injuries were caused by some sort of blunt instrument. And there are stab wounds to the chest and neck. The knife’ll have a serrated blade.’
Make that two murder weapons.
‘As to cause of death? Take your pick. Trauma injury? Blood loss? Shock? Could even be cardiac arrest.’ Winking, he clicked on the ignition. ‘Catch you in the morning.’
    Arms crossed, she watched the tail lights disappear, murmuring, ‘There y’go . . . I said I was delirious—’
    â€˜You will be, boss.’ Harries joined the farewell party rocking on his heels, looking like a kid in a sweet shop. ‘Rumour has it Jas Ram’s just been nicked.’

FOUR
    J as Ram, in rude good health, was laying down the law in the