Constant Lovers Read Free Page B

large stomach, sleeves rolled up to show brawny, tanned arms.
    â€˜Got summat for you,’ he said, gesturing idly at the bundle in the back of the wagon. The girl had been covered with a dirty sheet, but there was no mistaking the fact that a body lay underneath. ‘I’ll help you get her in.’
    She was an awkward load, but together they managed to ease her through to the cell the city used as a mortuary.
    The carter wiped his hands on the apron. ‘Nasty business, that.’
    â€˜Do you know who she was?’ Nottingham asked.
    â€˜No.’ The carter answered. ‘Not local, though, I can tell you that.’ He paused, head tilted to one side. ‘Oh aye,’ he remembered, ‘I’ve summat else to give you. Come with me.’
    The Constable followed him out to the cart. The man reached under the seat and brought out an object in an old sack.
    â€˜The knife,’ he explained. ‘We had to take it out to wrap her. Bugger of a job it was, too. The blade was twisted and caught, didn’t want to come.’
    He climbed up to the wagon and flicked the reins lightly. The horse started to move. The man didn’t bother to look back.
    Removing the sheet, Nottingham could see her properly for the first time. The flies had gathered around her mouth and nose and he had to keep brushing them away. Already there was the smell of decay about her, sickening and sweet like overripe fruit.
    She was smaller than he’d first thought, no more than five feet and dainty, with the easy slimness of youth. Eighteen, he thought, possibly twenty, but no older than that. She had blue eyes and even features, a girl who was pretty, but with looks that stopped shy of beauty.
    He lifted her left hand, turning it over to examine the palm. It was exactly as he’d thought; the skin was soft and pale, she’d never had to work in her life. Her fingernails were clean, not bitten or worn to the quick. He held up the ring finger to the light, noticing a paler band of flesh, the sign of a wedding ring taken from her. There was a small, faint scar, shaped like a C, in the triangle between her thumb and forefinger.
    Her feet were tiny, the toes all straight, with no indication they’d ever been forced into shoes that didn’t fit. Finally he pushed her on to her side and exposed the wound in her back. The maggots were already there, tiny white creatures crawling and feasting around the gash. He flicked them away with a fingernail, bending to look more closely. There was just one cut, and judging from the position it would have pierced her heart.
    Gently he laid her back down and closed her eyelids. There were small bruises on her upper arms as if someone had held her too tightly, keeping her helpless. So perhaps there had been two of them, he thought, one to hold her still while the other stabbed.
    Nottingham ran his hands over the dress, feeling slowly along the seams for anything that might be hidden there. Moving down, his fingertips touched something, a pocket cleverly concealed in the fabric. He opened it carefully and took out a piece of paper, folded several times into a tiny square. He opened it up and held it to the light. A note in a man’s handwriting: Soon we’ll be together and our hearts can sing loud, my love. W. Was that just a keepsake she kept close to treasure or something hidden for a reason, he wondered?
    He stood back, staring down at the fragile body. Someone had loved this girl, raised her, seen her go when another wedded her. She’d come from a family with enough money that she’d never wanted for anything. People would miss her very soon.
    At the desk he picked up the sack and shook out the knife. Blood had dried on the edges of the blade in veins like rust. It might have been made for cutting meat in the kitchen, but it had still cost someone deep in the purse, an expensive weapon for a killing. This didn’t look like a random murder by thieves. If it