Ice Queen: A Chilling Scandinavian Crime Thriller (DI Jamie Johansson Book 6) by Morgan Greene

Author:Morgan Greene [Greene, Morgan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mercury Books
Published: 2022-08-30T16:00:00+00:00

19

‘So which way?’ Jamie asked. She was intent on following the tracks, but she couldn’t deny that Elliot’s observations were all dead on. The way he’d described the method of bringing down the victim, the way she severed the spinal column, and then how she removed the head in situ. It all appeared to be a perfect match to what they knew so far.

But what she wasn’t sure of was where the body itself was. What would be the point of the Queen removing the head here and then dragging the body away? If it was a ceremony, that was only half an answer. It would just make it more work, and messier, to get rid of the body. Though as she worked through that problem in her head, Elliot already seemed to be at the answer.

‘Well, we can either follow the tracks of the victim to see where they came from, or we can follow the drag marks and see where the body was taken away to and disposed of afterwards,’ he said, pointing to the two separate trails, each leading off in different directions.

‘Why remove the head if she’s just dragging the body out of here?’ Jamie asked, curious as to his assessment.

‘That’s the thing about royalty,’ he said, stepping around the blood pool and following the drag marks, ‘they have servants do their dirty work for them.’

‘You think someone else removed the body?’

‘Abduction, imprisonment, coordinated release, hunting, beheading, it’s a lot for one person. She had help. The question is, how much?’

Jamie considered it, then she followed Elliot.

He allowed her to draw next to him and lead on, keeping at her shoulder as they followed the drag marks.

Where they led and how far, Jamie didn’t know.

‘Interesting,’ Elliot said after a few seconds, thankfully expounding before Jamie was forced to ask. ‘The footprints, can you see?’

‘What about them?’ Jamie looked down at the prints in the drag marks.

‘They’re facing forward,’ he said, not stopping. ‘The person who removed the body was walking in the same direction.’

‘And why’s that interesting?’

‘Dead bodies are heavy, blood or not.’

‘You would know.’

‘And it’s tough to drag a body like that. Most people would take the arms, turn, and walk backwards. But if the Queen’s servant is walking forwards, then there’s a good chance they were using one hand, dragging the body behind them.’ He reached back past his hip to illustrate. ‘In snow this thick,’ he went on, up to his knees in it practically, ‘that’s no small task. Whoever did this was strong, and judging by the size of these prints’ – he put his own boot in one of them – ‘pretty big, too.’

‘Great,’ Jamie muttered, ‘we’re looking for a crossbow-wielding sociopath and her hulking manservant.’

‘There can’t be many people in town with a size …’ He put his foot in another print and paused for a moment. ‘Twelve, thirteen shoe?’

‘It’s like Cinderella.’

‘If Cinderella could crush your head like a grapefruit.’

She did smirk at that one, but did her best to hide it.

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