Shadows in the Cotswolds by Rebecca Tope Read Free Book Online Page A

well-camouflaged hide, and Hepzie gave a yap. 
    ‘Shut up,’ Thea hissed at her. ‘You’ll scare them all away.’
    But then she saw the cause of the dog’s alarm, and felt like yapping, or shouting or calling upon divine assistance herself.
    Because there was a dead person lying face up on the rough grass between the hide and the feeding stations, as if in a green chamber created by the protecting trees overhead.

Chapter Five
    There was an appalling tidiness to the corpse that Thea found almost unbearable. The hands were folded across the chest, the hair immaculately neat, the expression peaceful. The only jarring note was the three items of clothing that had been collected from the box in Oliver’s house. They were lying carelessly tossed aside, a few feet away. ‘It’s that girl!’ Thea said aloud. ‘What on earth has happened to her?’ She nudged an unmoving arm delicately with her foot, in needless confirmation that life really was extinct.
    Nobody replied. All the birds had disappeared, apart from one crow, sitting in clear view on the stump of a tree that must have been cut down to make way for the hide. It eyed Thea and the body with calculating interest, its thick black beak slowly tilting from side to side as it moved its head for a better view. 
    ‘Go away,’ said Thea loudly.
    The bird showed signs of asking itself just what it might have to fear from this human being and her dog. At her feet was some very tempting carrion, enough for every friend and relation for miles around. Perhaps, if it waited a while, the upright being would leave the way clear for the early pickings in the form of juicy eyeballs and soft fleshy tongue.
    Robotically, Thea grabbed her dog’s collar and began to hurry back to the house, hoping the crow would hesitate before beginning its predations. The body had looked cold and stiff, the lips blue-grey and the visible skin drained of blood.
    She called the police, and agreed to wait by the roadside to lead the way to the clearing. They knew where Vineyard Street was, and promised to be there quickly. Shutting the dog inside, Thea ran back down the woodland path with a rug she had grabbed from Oliver Meadows’ sofa, and threw it over the vulnerable corpse.
    Only as she stood impatiently at the end of the little drive did she remember her expected visitors. What was her mother going to say? And – belatedly – it dawned on her that the victim was the daughter of Fraser Meadows, who was also shortly to arrive on the spot. The man would see his dead child, would perhaps wail and sob on her mother’s insubstantial shoulder. From past experience, she knew it was perfectly possible for the dead Melissa to lie undisturbed for the bestpart of the day while the police examined the scene in every imaginable detail. A tent would be erected over her, and TV reporters would probably turn up and film it. The magnitude of the disaster expanded as she gradually overcame the initial shock and considered the implications.
    The birds! There would be forensics people and photographers and a police doctor all crowded into the little space and probably wrecking Oliver’s careful arrangements. They would go into the hide and examine its contents.
    The camera! Excitedly, she realised that there was a chance that the truth of what had happened to Melissa might be recorded on the little digital card. But it could wait until the police arrived. She would calmly show it to them, and invite them to take the card as a prize piece of evidence.
    Despite some acquaintance with the local police, she had never met either of the individuals who first responded to her call. They were uniformed officers, a sergeant and a constable, and she felt uncomfortably old in comparison with them both. ‘I assure you she’s dead,’ she said. ‘Is there a doctor on his way?’
    The sergeant smiled tightly, and made an excessively polite reply to the effect that all due procedures were in train, thank you, madam. If