Easy Kill Read Free

to examine the exposed grave. Until now the prominent smells had been a mixture of fresh blood and the acrid odour of urine and faeces expelled through fear, shock, or death itself. Now that the body had been removed, Rhona realised she was picking up another scent.
    She sat back on her haunches and took a deep breath. Most of the Necropolis graves were grass covered, but not this one. Built into the hillside and fronted by a low stone wall, it lay constantly in shadow. Here there was no grass, only dark earth and a sprinkling of weeds.
    Rhona bent closer to the ground. The smell was definitely stronger there. A terrible thought crossed her mind. One she hardly dared contemplate.
    ‘Are there any police dogs on site?’
    ‘I think so.’ Chrissy looked at her quizzically. ‘What’s up?’
    ‘Not sure yet.’
    Outside the tent the drizzle had developed into stair rods. There was no sign of Bill, and Rhona assumed he had returned to the station to set up an incident room. McNab was standing near the inner cordon, apparently oblivious to the downpour.
    Rhona called out to him.
    ‘What’s up?’
    ‘I need a police dog. The soil under the body is disturbed and there’s a strong scent of decomposition.’
    ‘This is a graveyard.’
    ‘The man buried here is too long dead to smell this bad.’
    The cynical smile disappeared from McNab’s face.
    ‘You think there’s something else buried there?’
    ‘Let’s see how the dog reacts.’
    He nodded, serious now. ‘I’ll radio one in.’

3
    THE DOG WAS already working its nose as it entered the tent. On release it made straight for the grave.
    They watched as it grew ever more excited, sniffing and pawing at the surface.
    ‘What do you think?’ Rhona asked the handler.
    ‘She smells something all right.’
    Rhona checked with McNab. ‘Do we need permission to excavate?’
    ‘We’ll worry about that later.’
    Rhona began to remove the earth cautiously with a small trowel, aware of what might lie beneath. It took a little over four inches to establish that something was buried there and by then the putrid smell was strong enough to gag on. McNab, reading the expression on the handler’s face, sent the relieved man outside.
    Eventually an object distinguishable as a finger began to emerge from the damp soil, swiftly followed by another. From nowhere, the first fly appeared and made an attempt to land. Rhona swatted it away.
    Gradually the full hand lay exposed. It was badly decomposed but recognisable as female, a small gold ring biting into the rotting flesh of the middle finger.
    Chrissy muttered ‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph’ under her breath.
    Rhona stood up. ‘Okay. Looks like our perpetrator has killed before.’
    McNab stared down in disbelief. ‘He knew the body was there?’
    ‘He knew all right,’ Rhona said with conviction. ‘Why else bring his victim to this particular grave?’
    ‘I’d better call the boss.’ McNab pulled out his phone.
    ‘Bill’s going to love this,’ said Chrissy.
    By the time Bill returned, Rhona had exposed the face and upper body, both in an advanced state of decomposition, but there was no mistaking the ligature around the neck, fashioned from a bra.
    ‘Our man’s got a trademark.’
    ‘If the knots are tied the same way.’
    ‘How long has the body been buried?’
    ‘A shallow grave. Hot weather and plenty of rain. At a guess, maybe a month.’
    Bill let a sigh escape. ‘There could be more.’
    Young women engaged in street prostitution appeared and disappeared regularly. Many were homeless and went unregistered. Most were outcasts of society.
    ‘We should use the dogs. Check the rest of the graveyard for disturbed earth,’ Rhona suggested.
    She didn’t need to look at Bill’s expression to know how many man-hours that would need. There were 3,500 tombs in the City of the Dead.
    ‘What about this one?’
    ‘I’ve contacted Judy Brown at GUARD. I’ll help her expose the body and get it to the