Nameless Kill by Ryan Casey Read Free Book Online Page A

impressive house, he prayed to God that Jeeves had good news for him.
    A cool breeze that smelled of mowed grass covered him as he walked outside.
    He prayed to God, but he knew from the tone in Jeeves’s voice that not all was fine and dandy.

Chapter Eight
    Brian soon arrived at the scene of the crime. Even though it was only a five minute walk from Mrs. Delforth’s house, the way he was panting suggested he’d run a mile.
    There was a little plastic tent set up over the body right across the stream. Around it, forensics wearing protective equipment scanned the area, lifting rocks, doing something in the water‌—‌all sorts of stuff to do with blood, DNA and semen, the science of which Brian had never really been arsed to try and understand. He waded through the water, wearing light, waterproof protective gear of his own that a fellow officer had provided him with upon arrival. He felt like a fucking Slitheen off Doctor Who in this thing, but what was necessary was necessary.
    “McDone.”
    The voice came from just beyond the tent. It was from one of the three faceless people zipped up in their protective gear. The one to the far left stuck a thin thumb up at Brian, and Brian knew right away that it was Jeeves.
    Brian approached the tent, holding his breath, trying his best not to look inside at the body without preparing himself. The distant tang of Mrs. Delforth’s sugary tea lingered on his tongue. “Please tell me you’ve got something for me, Jeeves. Please.”
    Jeeves shrugged. His face was hidden by the hood that was wrapped around him like Kenny off South Park. “Well, unfortunately it’s very hard to get a good look at the girl’s body when it’s in such a position. Forensics have been doing the usual tests, and I expect there’ll be at least some DNA traces or fibres that come back, especially from that…‌you know. The headwear.”
    Brian nodded. He looked down at the tent. If he squinted enough, he could still see the girl underneath it.
    “I need her on the table to have a proper look at her, but I understand your reluctance to remove her from the scene just yet.”
    “We need to make sure we’ve got everything covered. Any official word on the cause of death?”
    Jeeves shrugged again and grabbed the opening of the tent. He opened the curtain, and Brian saw the girl there.
    The pale skin of her hands, bound by those white bandages, which also wrapped loosely around her feet.
    And the antlers. The antlers on her pink-hat-covered head. The pink hat over the sheep wool style covering.
    “You can see for yourself that it’s quite clear she drowned,” Jeeves said. “Now we just have to check these materials she’s wearing. And I’m almost certain that we’ll be able to get some DNA from her killer once we‌—‌”
    “Wait,” Brian said, forcing Jeeves to rewind a little. “Drowned? What about…‌the mark on her neck. She’s been strangled, hasn’t she?”
    A slight pause from Jeeves.
    Then, a word that Brian hadn’t heard him mutter in a long, long time.
    “Ahh,” Jeeves said, confirming that Brian’s suspicions were incorrect. “There is a wound on her neck. But that was clearly distorted by the amount of time she’s spent in the water, which I’d put at a day or two from my early examinations. No, look right here.”
    Jeeves crouched down and pulled open the curtain of the tent a little more. He reached carefully towards the girl’s head and propped it upright.
    Just seeing her so dead, so still like this again, made Brian’s stomach turn. Her head was flimsy, like that of a rubber doll. Her hair, so greasy.
    And the wound on her neck. There was a definite wound on her neck. Red. Bordering on purple. Definitely an indentation. How wasn’t that the wound that had killed her?
    “Not so good at distinguishing our drowning signs from our strangulation signs, are we, McDone?” Jeeves said, pointing at the neck. Brian didn’t say a thing to this. Jeeves was referring to