I got a call that a member of the public had found a body. When I arrived, Mr Roberts was sat in his car. He was grateful of the company, having had quite a shock. He had stopped there because he needed a pee, and knew the ground sinks down into a kind of pit. Says his bladder isn’t what it was and he couldn’t risk waiting until he had finished his walk. Then he saw some bushes a little further down and decided it was better cover. That’s when he saw the body and called the police.”
“Did he get to go?”
“Go, sir?” PC Ashton asked.
“Yes, go. Go for a pee?”
“I don’t know, sir.”
“Well, we need to know so the crime scene workers don’t waste any time on the contents of Mr Roberts’ bladder.” Reed said.
“Yes, sir. I’ll find out.” Ashton agreed. “Anyway, Mr Roberts guided me to the area and I edged down the embankment. I tried not to get too close, but I squatted down and saw what I believed to be a body of a young female.”
“Ok, thank you.”
The officer walked away and Reed felt the damp start to seep through his clothes. He wondered if the drizzle was fine enough to shoot straight through the fibres of his clothing and directly onto his skin. That’s what it felt like it was doing. Having enjoyed a sunny couple of weeks, the weather had turned to this. Everyone would be saying the same old things they did every year, like “The grass needed it” or “It’s freshened up the air.” Reed didn’t much care for the grass right now and he didn’t think the air had been too stale in the first place. Although it was fitting that the sky had turned dark today, providing the perfect backdrop for this turn of events and mirroring Reed’s feelings.
He was dreading going to see the body; after he had ambled around the car park for as long as he could wasting time, he had no choice but to make his way down towards one of the dirt tracks, through the bushes and find the pit. As he set off, he looked over to his right and saw DS Alice Tyler talking to Plumridge, who had soon hot footed it away from Reed after parking the car so he didn’t have to accompany him to see this. Tyler was about the only friend Reed had on the force. She was attractive in an intelligent sort of way. She was tall and slim and had a pale, creamy complexion. Her hair had the tightest ringlets he had ever seen and they were always pulled back into a ponytail, coloured a bright auburn. The colour of her hair was as natural as her ringlets she had once told him, not revealing exactly how natural that was. Reed always thought that if you were to remove the band holding it all together at the back of her head, her hair would shoot out into a perfect afro with the same gusto as a spring breaking free from a cartoon bed.
As Reed made his way through the bushes that seemed to be scattered around in no particular order, he couldn’t help but wonder if they had been planted this way or was Mother Nature slowly claiming back her land? He hoped it was Mother Nature. PC Ashton was on hand to point out which track to follow and after only a few metres he spotted two officers at the cusp of the pit. One was taking official photos of the area before it got disturbed too much. The other officer was holding a clipboard; it was his job to keep a log of anybody that entered the cordoned-off area and a ring of police tape weaved its way around the trees indicating exactly where this was.
It was the third day that Carmella had been missing and in some way he hoped she had been here the whole time. He hoped she hadn’t been held captive for all this time and put through a living hell before being killed. Maybe an accident had occurred and she knew nothing of her own death. There was also the selfish reason; if she had died before she was reported missing, it would mean that he hadn’t had a chance at finding her alive.
The weather had been hot and sunny up until today and Reed wondered if her flesh had been left to bake in the