Bloodstream Read Free Page B

the stadium? Someone nicked a footballer’s car or something?’ Hale said. Murphy gave him a withering look, which made Hale stiffen and turn away.
    Stephens deigned to look at him for a second before switching her attention back to Murphy and Rossi. ‘If you’ll allow me to finish my sentence . . . no, not at the stadium. Although not far from it. Two bodies found in a house in Anfield.’ She rattled off an address which Murphy was pleased to see both Rossi and Hale noted down.
    ‘Suspicious?’ Murphy said, noting a harried look in Stephens’s eyes and wondering what had caused it.
    ‘Very. And that’s not all. Early reports are that we’ve found our missing celebs. And that it’s bad. Very fuc—’ Stephens stopped herself short. ‘Let’s just say if what I’m hearing is right, we’re about to have a lot more company than usual.’
    Murphy nodded and turned round, not waiting for Rossi and Hale to follow.
    It always begins with a body. Or bodies, in this instance. Murphy thought of the cases over the years – the bodies he had seen in their last moments – and carried on walking.
    That was what he was paid to do. To keep walking towards the bodies.

Chapter Two
     
    They had arrived to a scrum of uniformed officers, all trying to look like they were being useful. Murphy guessed most were just hanging around in the hope of getting a glimpse of the scene. The opportunity to tell their friends and family later, that they had been involved in what was shaping up to be a much-discussed case over dinner – or ‘tea’ if you’re from the north and correct – in the coming days.
    Murphy had parked between a forensics van and a marked vehicle, squeezing the pool car into the tight space.
    ‘Looks a bit different around here,’ Rossi said, once out of the car. ‘Thought they’d have got more done by now, though.’
    ‘Yeah, sprucing it up isn’t going to do much if the residents are still the same,’ Murphy replied, looking down the street at Anfield Stadium in the distance. Regeneration projects and the expansion of the football stadium were transforming the area of Anfield, albeit slowly, and arguably not in the way most people had envisioned. ‘Disenfranchised youth and a battle-hardened older generation aren’t the best of mixes. Nice to see those boarded-up houses around the stadium finally go though. About bloody time. Might even move up the season ticket waiting list with the ground expansion. Just hope ticket prices don’t keep increasing.’
    ‘Like you’d go that much anyway.’
    ‘You never know, Laura,’ Murphy said with a grin. ‘I could become a regular for all you know. Probably better than just Sky Plussing
Match of the Day
once a week and fast forwarding through that big-eared ex-bluenose. Bet it’s murder round here on match days.’
    Rossi didn’t reply, just gave a slow nod of her head as she looked towards the row of houses that had been marked for demolition and rebuilding a number of months ago, all post-war brick and years of disregard.
    Murphy knew the front facades only told part of the story. The steel coverings on the windows would have been broken into. Never at the front, always at the back – even squatters and robbers had sense. Armed with a crowbar or some other tool, they’d have easily pulled back the coverings and taken their fill of the leftovers or settled in and set up home. The security company in charge of keeping the houses empty would have made some attempts to clear squatters out, but Murphy knew that most of the time it was more trouble than it was worth.
    Murphy brushed past the uniform standing outside the derelict house where all the attention was gathered. The PC acknowledged him with a nod.
    ‘Have you noticed they never ask me for ID?’
    ‘Let’s see,’ Rossi said, keeping in step with him. ‘The two highest-profile murder cases we’ve had in the past decade, and you’ve managed to be involved with both investigations. On top of that,