Sins of the Fathers Read Online Free

dear Mr Woodend,’ she said warmly. ‘What a great pleasure it is to see you.’
    â€˜The feelin’s mutual,’ Woodend told her. ‘What can you tell me about the body?’
    Dr Shastri clicked her tongue disapprovingly.
    â€˜Always so eager to get down to business, with not even a hint of polite chit-chat first,’ she said. ‘You are completely bereft of social skills, aren’t you, you poor fellow?’
    Woodend grinned. ‘Completely,’ he agreed. ‘Now what about my stiff, Doc?’
    â€˜He was killed by a blow to the back of the head.’
    â€˜How hard was it?’
    â€˜Very violent indeed. If you wish to replicate the effect for yourself, I suggest you get a packet of crisps – any flavour will do – place it on a flat surface, and bring the palm of your hand down on it, as hard as you can.’
    Woodend grimaced. ‘So whoever delivered the blow almost certainly meant to kill him?’
    â€˜Undoubtedly. Especially in the light of the injuries the killer inflicted on his victim
after
he had delivered it.’
    â€˜An’ what might they have been?’
    Dr Shastri straightened up, and moved away from the body.
    â€˜See for yourself, my dear Chief Inspector,’ she invited
    The corpse had been placed on to a large plastic sheet. It was dressed in an expensive blue lounge suit, and since it was lying on its front, the wound to the back of the head was clearly visible.
    The killer must have used
massive
force to stove in his skull like that, Woodend thought, letting his eyes travel slowly from the wound itself to the shoulders of the jacket, which were stained bright red.
    â€˜He was not killed here,’ Dr Shastri said conversationally, ‘so although pieces of his brain will have been spattered everywhere, I have very little hope of being able to recover any of them.’
    Behind him, Woodend heard Beresford gulping for air.
    â€˜Easy, lad,’ he said over his shoulder. ‘Think of it as no more than a piece of dead meat.’
    He turned his attention back on the corpse. There had been real anger – real
hatred
– behind the attack, he thought.
    â€˜Where are the injuries which were inflicted after he was dead?’ he asked Dr Shastri.
    â€˜Ah, I must turn him over in order for you to see the results of the
post-mortem
attack,’ the doctor said, crouching down again. ‘It might be wiser for you to leave now, Constable.’
    â€˜I’ll be all right,’ Beresford said, unconvincingly.
    â€˜Very well, that is your choice,’ Shastri said, and expertly rolled the corpse over on to the other end of the plastic sheet.
    It was the victim’s mouth that Woodend noticed first – or rather, the place where the mouth had been. All that remained now was a mush of bone, muscle and flesh.
    â€˜Jesus!’ Woodend said.
    â€˜I think I have managed to find most of the teeth,’ Dr Shastri informed him. ‘Not that I expect them to tell us anything that we don’t already know. I should have thought it would be fairly obvious to anyone what had happened to him.’
    â€˜Aye, you don’t need a medical degree to see he’s been given a right good hammerin’,’ Woodend agreed.
    â€˜But it is the other wound which truly fascinates me,’ Dr Shastri continued. ‘I do not think I have ever come across an attack quite like that before.’
    â€˜The other wound?’ Woodend asked.
    Dr Shastri laughed. ‘Tear your eyes away from his face for a moment and examine his mid-section,’ she suggested.
    The chief inspector shifted his gaze downwards. Pine’s jacket was open and largely undamaged, but his shirt had been slashed by the same cut which had ripped through the flesh and muscle it had been covering.
    The incision had opened up the dead man from just below his sternum right down to his pelvis, and exposed most of his stomach and a great deal