Deeds of Darkness (The Home Front Detective Series) by Edward Marston

Author:Edward Marston
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780749015244
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Published: 2014-10-22T16:00:00+00:00

While she’d been quick to volunteer her help, Millie Duxford grew increasingly apprehensive when they reached the morgue. During his years in the family undertaking business, Joe Keedy had seen the impact of extreme grief many times. Relatives viewing the remains of a loved one had been known to faint, suffer a heart attack or become hysterical. Millie was no relative, but her bond with the deceased had been a firm one and her sense of bereavement was intense. When he took her into the room where the body lay, therefore, Keedy stood close to her with a supporting hand under her elbow. Millie gave him a pale smile of gratitude.

By a cruel twist of fate, the model and the student had changed places. As a rule, it was Millie who was nude and Olive Arden who was fully clothed as she sketched her friend in a life class. Millie was now dressed and the murder victim was completely naked under the shroud. The difference between the police morgue and that of Josiah Keedy and Sons, Funeral Directors, was that the latter handled, for the most part, people who had died a natural death. There had been those killed in traffic accidents or by some mishap at work but foul play was never involved. Olive Arden, by contrast, had apparently been throttled by a powerful man either after or during the time that he’d taken his pleasure. The autopsy, Keedy believed, might well confirm that intercourse had taken place. It was a sickening thought. What had probably begun as a passionate experience for a compliant young woman had ended in her death.

Millie was not going to be rushed. She needed time to prepare herself. She breathed in deeply several times and ran her tongue over dry lips. Only when she felt completely ready did she nod at the assistant standing beside the trolley. The man drew back the shroud to reveal the face. Millie let out a gasp of horror.

‘It’s Olive!’ she cried.

Then she collapsed into Keedy’s arms.

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