STRANGE BODIES (a gripping crime thriller) by Antonia Marlowe Read Free Book Online Page B

Have they identified that body yet.’
    ‘I spoke to Cairns last Friday and no, they hadn’t,’ said Warne. ‘If he was microchipped it’s gone. Same with fingerprints, palm prints and so on, all gone, eaten or rotted away, they think but the hands look as though they may have been burned too. No DNA record ... now that is very strange. The lab’s trying dental but he had near perfect teeth and the only work he had done, a molar implant, was not done in Australia, Asian maybe, about a year ago. They’re still waiting on a response from InterCat . He must have come in on a tourist visa but we don’t seem to be able to find him yet. The ME’s report shows he was tied up with a thin wire rope and tortured before his throat was cut. They’re sending the body down here for another autopsy. Their equipment isn’t quite as sensitive as ours here.’
    ‘Why wire? That’s a bit odd.’
    ‘Well, it gets pretty wet and humid up there. Maybe he, the murderer, didn’t want the rope to rot away or be gnawed by rats. Or maybe that’s all he had with them. It says there were traces of mud on the wire. It could be a tow rope. You need them up there in the wet season.’
    Donna Price broke in, ‘Warne, you said before “not really”. Does that mean they have some idea who he was?’
    ‘Could be. They think the chap was staying in one of the rainforest lodges at Cape Tribulation. He’d paid in advance for a week’s stay, said he wanted complete seclusion to finish writing a book. They went looking for him when he didn’t turn up at the office to check out but there was no sign of him. His bag was gone and the room was clean. Not only clean but apart from actual furniture, cleaned out. Even the bedding, towels, crockery—all gone. Not a fingerprint, not a hair … nothing. Name on the register was Neil Laker, no ID scan, but the resort manager gave a description of him and said he had a posh accent, meaning English.
    ‘The body was spotted by a couple canopy surfing … they were looking at their vids that evening and saw the body. Do you want us to follow up, sir?’
    ‘No, we’ll leave it for now. The only real similarity is the tree. And maybe the torture, if it was torture,’ said Adams.
    ‘Now let’s have a closer look at this one. Bob, the reports on the Richardsons. And I think we all might have a copy of the Medical Examiner’s report, thanks. Give me your thoughts after you all read them.’
    The medical report gave an horrific picture of what had been done to the couple. They had been tortured: all the woman’s fingernails on one hand were missing, his toenails likewise. Their fingers and toes were scorched black, probably a laser torch, the report said. Their tongues had been severed while still alive and both had been sodomised with some large rough object, judging by the lacerations. His belly had been sliced open as was hers, mercifully after death.
    They had been tied together and their arms wrapped around each other and tied at the wrists. Their legs were joined and tied together at the ankles. His penis was missing, possibly dropped there and eaten by some creature. The ME had speculated that they had been stabbed to death but there was too much damage to show with what. There was no sign of microchips as the skin on their arms had been flayed and burnt.
    Price said, ‘There’s nothing here about the rope used to hang them up or what was used to tie their hands and feet together.’
    Kerry Jacobsen responded, ‘That report just came through as I was leaving and there’s a follow up on the door-to-door too. I’ve got it on here. Can I use this network pad?’
    ‘What’s that you’ve got?’ Nick asked as Jacobsen brought out a small silver object about the size of a credit card with a mirrored surface. He placed it on the pad and it immediately glowed.
    ‘It’s a Tyle, sir.’
    ‘A tile? What does it do?’
    ‘Yes, a T-Y-L-E. It’s a new minicomp, a Versa Tyle , that’s the brand.’