MURDER IN WOLFCLEUGH WOODS an addictive crime mystery full of twists by LEWIS ROY

Author:LEWIS, ROY
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Books crime thriller mystery and suspense
Published: 2022-03-31T00:00:00+00:00

3

Dr Ferryman ripped the rubber gloves from his hands with a slapping sound. He removed his mask and washed his hands before drying them. He inspected his ageing, heavily jowled features in the mirror with a degree of dissatisfaction and then made his way out of the forensic laboratory area to the outside room, where John Culpeper waited for him. He shook hands and grinned. ‘Been a while, John. You usually send one of your minions down here to the Newcastle forensic lab. What do you call them? Liaison officers?’

‘Layabouts, more like,’ Culpeper grunted. ‘Standing around doing nothing, waiting for you people to make up your minds about things that are already obvious to anyone with any sense and eyes in his head. If you’d only listen to us before you start the poking around—’

‘An old argument, my friend, an old argument. To take suggestions from the police would be a contamination of our integrity. We need to approach our work with an open mind. We must not taint our objectivity with suggestions as to what our results should be, merely to satisfy the desires of our comrades who uphold the best traditions of the law.’

‘You always did talk a lot of bollocks, Charlie Ferryman,’ Culpeper said affably. ‘I seen you legless on a Saturday night too often to take all that guff from you about integrity.’

‘Never behind the wheel of a car, John, never that. However, let’s sit down over here. You’ve come about the materials brought in last week, I suppose? I’m surprised it’s you personally, though.’

Culpeper shrugged. ‘Manpower problems. And I felt like a trip to the big city.’ He flopped his heavy bulk into the worn settee that had been placed for visitors outside Dr Ferryman’s office. The pathologist walked over to a coffee machine, glanced enquiringly in Culpeper’s direction and, when he received a shake of the head, obtained a single paper cup of coffee. ‘Probably drunk this stuff here before, have you? Wise man to decline.’

‘So. The Wolfcleugh stuff.’

‘Yes.’ The pathologist sipped his coffee and made a wry face. ‘It never improves . . . Wolfcleugh, now. First of all, as I understand it, there was a single bone found in the first instance.’

‘A student, camping up there, part of the protest group.’

‘Ah yes. Well, I can tell you with some conviction that there’d be no point in you spending time over that item. It’s a human thigh bone, without doubt. But my guess is that it’s very, very old. You’ll remember, I imagine, when that body — they call him the Wolf Man, I believe — was discovered at Wolfcleugh Moss we advised that a police search should be made of the surrounding area.’

‘Ah-huh. We excavated and sieved a hell of a lot of peat around the spot, but we didn’t find anything else. And by then we’d been advised the body was old. Then the archaeological team took over, and they’ve come up with various artefacts and conclusions about the burial site in the old bog.

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