FRANKS, Bill by JESUIT Read Free Book Online Page B

developing into a full-blown, nerve-jangling scream, the vessels on Paula’s neck filling with blood until it seemed they would burst.
       Andy got up quickly and readjusted his trousers . He was shaking like the leaves around him, now stirred by a gentle breeze . His hands clamped over his ears and he began to wail, mirroring the awful cries of Paula who had not moved from her uncomfortable position, and whose scream was continuing unabated.

                                                       CHAPTER SEVEN                                          
     
    The local police in Penn contacted Scotland Yard at four in the afternoon on the day Maddigan’s abused body had been found . The call was put through to D.I. Sampler.
       “Hello, Sir,” the voice began. “This is Sergeant Flint, of Penn Constabulary . We met recently over the Debbie Singleton murder.”
       “Yes . Hello, George. Got something for me?” He smiled at George’s voice: a pleasant man and easy to talk to.
       “Well, sir,”
       “Please, George - Graham . No need for formality.” Sampler interjected.
       “Yes . Okay, Graham.”  He paused before continuing . “Hard to believe, but we have had another murder . In one of the hamlets this time.”
       Sampler again interrupted . “Christ!  Not another young girl?” he barked.
       Flint went on: “No. Not a young girl, quite the opposite . It’s a man, a local schoolteacher by the name of Maddigan . Well respected, liked by his pupils, seemingly not an enemy in the world . The body was found today by a couple of school kids . Needless to say, they are both in shock.”
       “What stage are you at, George?”
       “I’ve done nothing as yet except to get my lads to take statements from a group of kids that were with the couple who found the teacher . I’ve sent the two to hospital for now and informed the parents . I doubt if I’ll be able to obtain their statements before tomorrow.”
       “Do you think it’s murder, George?”
       “Oh, yes . On first impressions, that is . The poor bloke appears to have been flagellated but I don’t know if that’s the cause of death.” George paused . “Could be a sex game gone wrong, I suppose . Wouldn’t be the first case, would it?”
       Sampler’s brain was working. “I take it there’s nothing obvious then?”
       “No, Sir – er, Graham . That’s what made me contact you first . It’s tenuous, but it is a kind of link with the other murder.”
       “Just what I was thinking.”  Sampler made up his mind . “Okay, George. Do nothing more . Make sure no one enters the scene and I’ll arrange forensics and pathology from here . I’m on my way.”
       “Thanks . I’ll meet you here and take you to the scene. Goodbye.”  The line was disconnected.
       Graham called Clive Miller to his office and told him of the latest report . “What do you think, Clive?”
       The Detective Sergeant pondered a moment . “As the Sergeant says, the link is a bit tenuous but, then, that would make three murders and each with no visible signs of what caused the death . If this one has poison in his blood stream, the link becomes a little more solid, eh?”
       Graham nodded his agreement . “I can’t see why our child-killer would turn to an adult but, somehow, I would be prepared to lay money on it that the cause of death will turn out to be poison in the bloodstream.”  He began to gather a slim sub-file from the drawer of his desk . This was a brief summary of the two murders at present under investigation, with salient points recorded . He then rang through to forensics followed by a call to the pathology department, giving them the Penn Constabulary address . The two men then left for the short journey to the picturesque village.
       Graham let Clive take the wheel . It wasn’t that he minded driving but