Death Rites by Sarah Ward

Author:Sarah Ward
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canelo
Published: 2024-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

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Iris had graduated from Jericho College, majoring in veterinary medicine, and taken a job in a bookstore over the summer. The retail industry was not the usual destination of graduates of the illustrious college and detectives later wondered if there was a man behind Iris’s decision to stay in Jericho. Her family were from Maine; they owned a chain of restaurants dotted up and down the coast, but there was no expectation Iris would work there. Instead, her mother had approached family friends who owned a practice and it had been agreed that Iris would join the business in October as a junior veterinarian. By September, Iris’s mother had become concerned that she wasn’t making any concrete plans to leave Jericho and an argument had ensued. Again, there had been the shadow of a man in the background, but that had been the extent of it.

Iris’s body was found in Shining Cliff Wood on a September evening. She had entered the wood and used her belt to hang herself from a tree near to the path used by dog walkers and tourists. It was initially ruled a suicide. A bookstore colleague said Iris had confided in her that she definitely didn’t want to return to Maine. She’d also confirmed that Iris had a boyfriend but was very coy about him. Married, she’d decided, and asked no more questions.

Erin had completed the autopsy and had initially agreed with the police assessment. Woods are a common choice of setting for suicides. From the Aokigahara of Japan to the conifers of New England, the desperate are drawn to the primaeval comfort given by forest landscapes. Then the witness came forward. Iris was striking. She had long dark hair that she plaited and wrapped around her head. Old fashioned but chic. The witness had seen a woman matching Iris’s description entering the woods with a male dressed in black jeans and a dark coat with a beanie hat. The witness was sure it was a male, but his description had ended with that.

Footprints had been useless near the site – Iris’s body had attracted wild animals who had scuffed up the area, but Viv Kantz had widened the search area and discovered the presence of two sets of prints. Suddenly, it was a murder investigation, although the working theory was that it was a joint suicide plan where the male had decided to bail. That, at least, was the assumption. Erin had done her bit. Iris’s cadaver showed no sign of physical abuse and her colleagues said she seemed happy if reticent about her boyfriend. So, it was to all intents and purposes a consensual partnership. But, thought Erin, who knows really what goes on in people’s relationships? The man had never come forward.

A year later, however, a local man had confessed to the crime. That’s why she hadn’t thought about Iris Chan. It was case solved.

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