Innocent Lies (Reissue) by Chris Collett

Author:Chris Collett [Collett, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Books crime, thrillers, and mystery
Published: 2017-11-04T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

When Knox had returned, Glover cut to the chase. ‘Everything so far says the blood on the grass is definitely Ricky’s. It was a frenzied attack involving repeated blows to the skull with a blunt instrument. It would have been messy.’

‘So the clothing the killer was wearing—?’ Mariner began.

‘—would be pretty well covered in blood.’

‘According to Lily it was some kind of brown suit.’

‘Yeah, I’ve spoken to her. Her eyesight seems pretty sharp and what she’s told us seems accurate so I think we can go on that. So the brown suit would have needed to go to the cleaner’s or even more likely would have been destroyed. Hard to explain to the dry cleaner why your suit is covered in someone else’s blood.’

‘Have we got a time of death?’ Mariner asked.

‘Thanks to the weather the body was pretty ripe, as you saw,’ said Glover. ‘But they’re saying sometime late on Tuesday afternoon.’ Lining it up nicely with the last time that Yasmin was seen alive. Mariner tried not to deliberate too long on that equation.

‘Anything else?’

‘Only what Lily’s already told you; she’s pretty certain that the man she saw had dark hair.’ Like Mohammed Akram, thought Mariner. Did he own a brown suit? ‘It could, of course, depend on the angle of the sun at that time,’ Glover went on. ‘If the sun was behind or overhead it could be one detail that she’s mistaken on.’

‘It’s possible,’ agreed Mariner. ‘What about Colleen’s boyfriend, Marsh?’

‘We’re checking him out, but so far his alibi looks sound. He was still at work.’

‘That’s a pity,’ said Knox.

‘Yeah, isn’t it?’

‘Any thoughts on how it played out?’ Mariner asked.

‘Well, we have blood on the grass by the wooden bridge, but around that, nothing. And no sign of disturbance. However, working back from where the body was found is a kind of tunnel through the grass leading almost back to the bridge and also smeared with blood. Indications are that Ricky was killed at the bridge, then his killer carried him into the long grass and dumped him, coming back to the path to cover his tracks. It looks as if Ricky could have dragged himself further through the grass creating a kind of tunnel, to the point where we found him.’

‘Oh God, so he wasn’t dead,’ said Millie.

‘And crawling even further from the path did his killer a favour by delaying the discovery of his body. We’re continuing the search in the direction he was going to see if he was making for anything in particular. But he may just have been trying to get away. And you were right about the reason for Ricky being there,’ Glover added. ‘I asked Colleen. His dad used to take him fishing on the reservoir, but they hadn’t been for years. We still haven’t found his bike, but did they tell you about the Anderson?’

‘I didn’t get time to check in yesterday.’

‘Further round still from where Ricky’s body was found we came across an old Anderson shelter. From all the empty cans and crisp packets it looked as if Ricky had hidden out there before.

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