The Corpse's Tale (Trevor Joseph Detective series) by Katherine John Read Free Book Online Page A

wall and stared at me. Then the children from the council estate came and threw stones. No one stopped them. It upset my mam.’ David’s bottom lip trembled. ‘The garden needs a good going over, so does the churchyard. Mr Tony’s been here twice. But he thinks I killed Anna.’
    ‘How do you know, David?’
    ‘Because he keeps saying I’ve paid for what I’ve done. He told me and my Mam to hold hands with him and pray. I told him I didn’t want to. That I wanted to go out and tidy the churchyard. The stones are all dirty, the grass needs cutting and it needs weeding. He said I can’t have my old job back. I told him I’d work for nothing but he said it wasn’t up to him but the Church Council.’ As David spoke faster his voice rose higher. ‘No one in Llan has listened to the judge or Mr Smith. Everyone here still thinks I killed Anna…’
    ‘ Tell me about Anna, David,’ Tr e v o r interrupted. He found it odd that David grew calmer at the mention of her name.
    ‘Like Mam said, I liked her when she was a little girl. I liked her when she was older too. She was always nice and kind to me. She never made fun of me like some of the other children. We used to play together when she was little, Monopoly, Snakes and Ladders and Ludo. Or cards. Mam likes a game of cards and when Mr and Mrs Harris went away to buy antiques Mam would look after Anna. She slept in the back bedroom and had all her meals with us. But then that was when she was little. I’ve got a photograph of me and her together. Do you want to see it?’
    ‘Yes, I’d like to.’
    ‘It’s upstairs in my bedroom. Mr Smith sent on all my things from prison, but I’ve tidied them away.’
    Trevor followed David into a small hall and up a narrow staircase. David’s bedroom was at the side of the house. If Trevor had been asked to guess the age of the occupant he would have put it as early teens. The duvet and matching pillowcase on the single bed were patterned with tigers. The bookshelves filled with comic books, assembled Air Fix kits and framed photographs.
    ‘This is my mam and dad on their wedding day.’ David handed Trevor a picture of a couple standing outside a church. The groom’s flared trousers dated it as the seventies, but Trevor couldn’t help feeling the bride’s dress would have been considered old-fashioned, even then.
    ‘What happened to your father, David?’
    ‘He was driving a tractor that fell over on top of him. They took him to hospital but Mam said they couldn’t do anything to help him. He died a week later.’
    ‘How old were you?’
    ‘I was a baby. That’s why I can’t remember him. This is me and Anna Harris. Mam took it on my sixteenth birthday.’
    David was holding hands with a small girl with blonde pigtails and Trevor worked out that Anna would have been about four or five years old when it was taken. She was smiling up at David, innocent, trusting. Could David really have killed her fourteen years later?
    ‘It’s a nice picture.’
    ‘This is me and Mr Tony the year St David’s won an award for being the best kept church in Mid Wales. I’m holding the big cup we won. Mr Tony gave me a small one. Mam keeps it in the cupboard in the parlour.’
    Trevor looked David in the eye. ‘I know you’ve told lots of people what happened the day before Anna was killed and the morning you found her. But could you go over it once more with me?’
    ‘Yes, Mr Joseph. Mr Smith…’
    ‘Who’s Mr Smith, David?’
    ‘My – my – ’ David struggled to get the word out, ‘– my counsel. He’s my friend. He knows I’m innocent and he said I should help the new police officers all I could because you’ll prove to everyone that I didn’t kill Anna.’
    ‘I promise you, David, I’ll do everything I can to find out the truth.’
    ‘I’ll make us another nice cup of tea, Mr Joseph and we’ll sit in the living room.’ He grinned childishly. ‘I’ll get some of those chocolate biscuits as well.’
    He