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

walked down the stairs leaving Trevor to f o l l o w. Trevor glanced at the other photographs on the shelf. There was one of David’s mother, looking older than her seventy years, her parchment-thin skin stretched over her cheekbones. He recalled her shaking hand, and tremulous voice.
    He knew David Morgan must have suffered in prison. He’d seen the regime the warders imposed and the brutality of the inmates firsthand. A man as simple-minded as David would have found it difficult to adjust. He’d be an easy target for cooped-up, frustrated men, and he didn’t doubt that David had been bullied. But he could only guess what the last ten years had been like for his mother, stubbornly living on in Llan. Ostracized by most of her neighbours and the local shopkeepers who believed David guilty of the most heinous of crimes.
    ‘Tea’s ready, Mr Joseph.’
    ‘Coming, David.’ Trevor closed the door on the bedroom and walked down the stairs.  
     

C H A P T E R S E V E N
     
    ‘I T ’ S LIKE I SAID , Mr Joseph, I didn’t look at the girl lying on the ground that morning. Not after I saw she had no clothes on. Mam told me to never look at a naked girl. I didn’t know it was Anna Harris until the policeman told me when he locked me away.’
    Trevor closed his notebook and pushed his pencil into his pocket. David Morgan must have been asked to tell the story of how he had found Anna Harris’s body hundreds of times in the last ten years. Both before and after his trial and conviction. From the files, he knew that David had never changed a single detail. In his experience that meant one of two things. Either David had a brilliant memory and was adept at recalling his lies, or he was telling the truth.
    ‘The earring you found on the path, David. Did you know it was Anna’s?’
    ‘No, Mr Joseph. But I knew it was gold. It was dirty. I tried to clean it but I was afraid of scratching it with my nails. I know gold is worth a lot of money.’
    ‘Let’s go back to the night before you found Anna in the churchyard. When you were looking for Sammy, did you see anyone?’
    ‘Lots of people. They said they saw me too, in court. Mrs George and Mrs Oliver came out of the Angel Inn and heard me calling Sammy. They’d been to the drama society with all the other ladies. They put on plays in the village. I used to like going to them with my mam. At Christmas they put on pantos. The last one I saw was Snow White. It was lovely, Anna Harris was Snow White and… ’
    ‘Who else did you see that night, David?’ Trevor steered the conversation back on course.
    ‘Mr Tony. He was always going back and forth between the vicarage and the church. There was a choir practice that evening. Mam and me listened to the boys sing when we were having our tea. That was before Mam went to bed with one of her headaches. Mr Morris was outside his shop when I was looking up the road. He was putting rubbish out for the bin men. When I couldn’t find Sammy in the High Street or the churchyard I went down the lane to look for him. Mrs Griffiths and Mrs Powell who live in the bottom cottages were gossiping
    – no – Mam says it’s bad to say gossiping. They were talking to each other over the wall.’
    ‘It sounds like the whole village was out that evening.’
    ‘In summer if it was hot, it used to be like that. Sometimes until long after it was dark.’
    ‘Did you see Anna?’
    ‘I saw her leave the community centre with the others and go into the Angel Inn. That was before Sammy ran off. We were in the fields. Mr Jones said I could walk Sammy there when there were no animals in them.’
    ‘Did you see Anna afterwards?’ Tr e v o r pressed.
    ‘Not until the morning when I didn’t know it was her.’ David screwed his eyes shut. He had been happy to talk about Anna when she’d been a child but he hadn’t said much about her as a young woman. Trevor didn’t think that a young woman about to leave home would have much in common with a