Too Soon a Death: A Scottish mystery where cosy crime meets tartan noir: Borders Mysteries Book 2 Read Free

Trent to return, she remembered an ex army friend who reckoned he’d been trained to eat any food which became available, because in combat you never know where your next meal is coming from. Pregnant women soon learned to apply the same principle to visiting the loo. What a pity the surprise visit from a police officer had made her forget this before exchanging the comfort of the health centre for the middle of nowhere. She shifted on the bench in an attempt to get more comfortable and glanced at her phone. Sergeant Trent had been gone nearly twenty minutes.
    He surprised her shortly afterwards by approaching from the opposite direction he’d walked off in, no longer wearing a coverall. ‘Sorry to be so long. My car’s parked up near the Chain Bridge. It may look further but it’s actually less of a walk than the path you came down by, and there are steps which’ll be easier to negotiate.’
    ‘That’s fine by me. I just wish my dog was here. He’d love it.’
    ‘I remember him. Bit of a Heinz fifty-seven, isn’t he?’
    ‘Everyone we meet has their own theory as to his parentage. A greyhound crossed with a spaniel is one of the more outlandish ones.’
    ‘My wife had a greyhound when we first met. It hated me.’
    Zoe laughed. She and Trent walked along the side of the river, chatting about dogs and then, inevitably, babies. He and his wife knew the sex of theirs: it was a boy.
    The bridge which had seemed so distant loomed in front of them surprisingly soon. It was smaller than Zoe expected, its deck suspended by a network of metal cables between two towers of pinkish stone. A police car drove across; it must be stronger than it appeared.
    Trent took the stone steps two at a time, Zoe following at a more sedate pace but still feeling breathless before she reached the top.
    ‘There’s my car.’ He offered her a set of keys from his trouser pocket. ‘I have to go on to the bridge. It shouldn’t take long.’
    ‘I’ll come with you, if that’s alright. I’ve never been here before.’
    ‘You’d have no reason to, living where you do.’
    ‘What’s on the other side?’
    ‘That’s England, Doctor. If the body had ended up on the opposite riverbank I wouldn’t be here. Northumbria Police would be running the show.’
    A pair of stone bollards guarded the entrance to the Chain Bridge, the scuffs of paint on them warning drivers of anything bigger than a family car to venture no further. As they emerged from under the arch, the breeze Zoe had enjoyed at the riverside felt stronger, causing the sides of latticed metal struts and cables to creak and rattle.
    ‘A Crime Scene Examiner should be here soon, but I wanted to take a look myself,’ Trent said, striding along one of the wooden walkways on either side of the tarmac deck. ‘I’m sure I don’t need to remind you not to touch anything.’
    She peered down at the river, happy to keep her hands away from the painted cables which were stained with rust and bird droppings. A swan cruised directly below them, creating a V-shaped wake. Back where she and Trent had come from, even more white-shrouded figures now milled around the water’s edge.
    Trent pulled out the evidence bag containing the fragment of green material found on the dead boy and held it against a horizontal cable. ‘Perfect match,’ he said.
    ‘So he was dropped into the water from here?’
    ‘They wouldn’t even have to lift him up over the top cable, because there’s enough room to slide him between two of these lower ones. What they didn’t realise—or probably didn’t care about—was that some of the paint is so loose it got caught in his clothes.’
    ‘Were they relying on him sinking or floating out to sea? Neither seems a reliable way to dispose of a body.’
    ‘He wasn’t weighted down and we’re a good few miles from the coast. Seems like they didn’t mind how soon he’d be found. They just wanted rid of him.’
    ‘What on earth had someone so young done to