The Corpse's Tale (Trevor Joseph Detective series) Read Online Free Page A

pulling the axe from her head.’
    ‘When was she killed?’
    ‘According to the pathologist who tested her stomach contents – she ate peanuts in the pub as well as drinking cider – anything between one and three hours after she left the pub. That puts her death somewhere between eleven that night and two in the morning.’
    ‘So if David Morgan didkill her it would be a case of the murderer returning to the scene of the crime several hours after the event.’
    ‘It would.’ Trevor referred back to the file. ‘The police found one of Anna’s earrings in David’s pocket. It was bloodstained. He insisted he had picked it up on the path in the churchyard that morning a few minutes before he found Anna’s body.’
    Peter nodded. ‘Give the man the benefit of the doubt and it’s feasible. The murderer drops the earring, David Morgan picks it up. He stumbles across the body. There must have been more hard evidence than that against him.’
    ‘Several witnesses saw him out looking for his dog from ten minutes past ten until midnight the night before, in the vicinity of the churchyard. That gives him time and opportunity.’
    ‘Did anyone hear anything? Screams, cries?
    ‘Nothing.’
    ‘An axe isn’t your usual murder weapon. Why did David have one at all?’ Peter changed down a gear as they drove up a steep hill.
    ‘The church uses a wood burning stove in w i n t e r. Farmers donated wood after land clearance, and David chopped it,’ Tr e v o r explained.
    ‘And possibly pretty girls?’ Peter looked sideways at Trevor. ‘All right, we have timing, weapon, bloodstains and earring, what else?’
    ‘Very little from what I can see,’ Trevor thumbed through the papers.
    ‘Motive? I take it she was sexually attacked.’
    ‘Pathologist found evidence of sexual activity but not violent rape. She had been stripped naked, her dress was found nearby, as was one earring, but her underclothes were missing. David had the second earring but the underclothes were never found.’
    ‘Forensic evidence?’
    ‘Apart from the bloodstains on David Morgan’s clothes, hands and face nothing that I can see here.’
    ‘The axe?’
    ‘No prints other than David’s and no blood or DNA on it other than his and Anna’s.’
    ‘The earring?’
    ‘Partial thumbprint and fingerprint, both David Morgan’s. The blood was Anna’s.’
    ‘If that’s it I’m not surprised Morgan was freed on appeal. The best you can say about the evidence is that it’s circumstantial. The worst that it’s a fit-up job. Is Morgan back in Llan?’
    ‘Arrived two weeks ago.’ Trevor saw the signpost for the village and closed the file.
    ‘It will be interesting to see what kind of reception he received.’ Peter stopped the car in a viewing lay-by and looked down on the scattering of houses clustered around a church and a road that cut through the valley.
    ‘Very,’ Trevor agreed.
    ‘One thing is certain, Joseph. We should have this wrapped up in record time. There’ll be nothing to do here except work.’
    ‘And drink in the pub.’
    Peter smiled. ‘That too.’ He pushed the car into gear and edged back out on the road.  
     

C H A P T E R F O U R
     
    ‘I’ M GLAD SOME PEOPLE like living in a place like this.’ Peter drew up in the car park of the Angel Inn.
    ‘Really?’ Trevor studied the pub that would be “home” until they finished working on the Harris case. It looked ancient, long, low-built with small windows set in thick stone walls, it was painted a garish pink.
    ‘They leave more room for the likes of us in the towns and cities, Joseph. Do you think there were ever enough people in this village to fill that church?’ He pointed across the road. Llan Church was massive; built of granite on a low hillock on the floor of the valley, it dwarfed the surrounding buildings. It was also a carbon copy of a dozen others he’d seen since they had crossed the Severn Bridge into Wales.
    ‘Possibly, from the number of