The Blood-Dimmed Tide by Rennie Airth Read Free Book Online

open on the ground near his feet. It was half filled with labelled glass jars, the fruits of the detectives’ efforts that morning, he supposed. Galloway, catching the direction of his glance, gestured.
    ‘You did a good job with that piece of canvas, John. You and the bobby. Thanks to you both, we can say for certain the assault was carried out here, on this very spot. I’ve plenty of blood samples from the grass. They’ll have to be tested, of course, but I’ve no doubt they’re from the girl’s body. Pieces of bone, too. And I’ve had them collecting pocketfuls of soil’ – he pointed out several holes dug in the rectangle of turf – ‘they’ll go to the government chemist for analysis. She must have lost a lot of blood, and most of it probably soaked into the ground.’
    Madden’s thoughts had been moving on a parallel course. ‘He’d have needed a spot like this, wouldn’t he? Secluded, I mean?’ For a moment he was distracted by the sudden appearance of a kingfisher which shot by like a blue streak, close to the water, leaving its characteristic chee-chee call echoing in its wake.
    Galloway, meanwhile, seemed to find the image conjured up by the other man’s words distasteful. He grimaced. ‘Given what he had in mind, I’d have to agree,’ he said. ‘Rape. Murder. Plus what he did to her face afterwards. No, he wouldn’t have wanted an audience for that.’
    ‘I was thinking the same thing, sir.’ Wright glanced up from the statement he was reading. ‘He already knew about this spot, didn’t he?’
    Madden looked at him inquiringly.
    ‘That tramp, sir. Beezy. We can place him here earlier, before the other one found the body… what’s his name… Topper? That mark on the tree…’ He gestured towards the birch growing by the bank. ‘We’ve got you to thank for that, Mr Madden. I’m not sure any one of us would have spotted it. Or known what it meant if we had.’
    Unmoved by the accolade, Madden frowned. ‘You’re treating Beezy as a suspect, then, are you?’
    ‘Well, yes, sir… until otherwise demonstrated. He’s the obvious one. We’ve had no word yet of any other strangers seen in the area, just motorists driving through the village, the usual Sunday traffic. And though we can’t exclude it was someone local, I’m inclined to doubt that possibility. Being a Sunday, I think you’ll find most of them were at home, and able to prove it.’
    ‘So if there were any strangers about, it’s unlikely they were seen.’ Galloway made the point.
    Wright shrugged. He seemed more interested in Madden’s opinion, which so far had not been offered.
    Galloway persisted. ‘Don’t you find it peculiar that he’d try to conceal a body at a spot where he’d already left his mark?’
    ‘Yes, I do, sir.’ Wright turned to him. ‘And, what’s more, a place where he was expecting to meet another tramp later. But that’s looking at it rationally, and this sort of crime doesn’t happen that way.’ His eyes returned to Madden’s face. He seemed to be hoping for some response from that quarter. ‘I can tell you how it might have come about,’ he went on. ‘This Beezy turns up yesterday looking to meet Topper, finds he has time on his hands, cuts that mark to show he’s been here, then goes off exploring. Remember, he hadn’t been to these parts before. Now you can get to the Craydon road from here easy. There’s a way off the main path that runs through the wood to the road and it comes out not far from where Alice Bridger was last seen.’ He shrugged. ‘I’m not saying that’s proof of anything, but it’s possible opportunity. He could have come on her there, lost his head maybe and attacked her, knocked her out or choked her and then brought her back up here. There’s evidence she was carried-’
    ‘Evidence?’ Madden had been staring at the ground while he listened. Now his head came up.
    ‘Yes, sir, that bit of thread you noticed caught on a bramble.’ Wright seemed