Page 70 of Killing Mind

The guy in the water was giving the thumbs up to the crew in the boat as she saw the bottom end of a body bag break the surface of the water.

She turned to Plant. ‘Tell her it’s gonna be a little while yet.’

She didn’t wait for an answer as she headed closer to the lake to get a better look.

‘Looks like Penn might have had something after all,’ Bryant said, standing beside her.

Perhaps, Kim thought, keeping her gaze on the boat.

She approached the bank as the dinghy pulled in.

‘Let me help,’ Keats said, taking two steps down. The divers said nothing as the pathologist helped lift the body bag out of the boat.

Kim craned her neck to get a better look as they carried it gently up the bank and onto Keats’s waiting trolley.

‘We’re going back down,’ Guy said, as he passed her.

‘For what?’ Kim asked.

‘One hand and one foot missing.’

She looked to Mitch.

‘Perfectly normal.’

Keats brought the trolley to rest beside her. ‘You ready?’

She nodded as he slowly began to unzip the bag.

‘Bloody hell,’ she said, covering her nose as the stench of death mixed with dirty water filled her nostrils.

What she saw could only be described as a skeleton wrapped in wet brown paper bags.

‘This one doesn’t look bloated and waxy,’ she observed to Mitch, remembering how Tyler had looked.

‘Temperature of the water,’ Mitch answered. ‘If the water was warmer when the body went in, adipocere wouldn’t have started forming.’

‘You think this one has been in there longer than Tyler Short?’

Both Keats and Mitch nodded, but it was Keats who spoke. ‘How much longer is difficult to say right now.’

Keats continued to pull down the zipper.

Kim followed the motion while continuing to assess the body, unsure whether or not it was Sheila until her gaze reached the foot that had remained attached.

Bryant’s sharp intake of breath told her he’d clocked the same thing as she had.

This poor soul was wearing a large, man-size trainer and was definitely not Sheila Thorpe.

Fifty-Eight

Tiff found herself already confused. The taxi had dropped them off at the main road. Britney had laughingly helped her climb a gate as she’d explained they were taking the scenic route.

This was not where Stacey had shown her on Google Earth and it wasn’t where the car would be waiting at ten.

She walked alongside Britney as they crossed two fields, circled a small wooded area and climbed a steep hill. It wasn’t a journey she’d care to make in the dark.

‘There it is,’ Britney said, breathlessly, as they reached the top of the mound.