Silent Scream

Nineteen

‘Guv, with all due respect, are you out of your bloody mind?’

‘Something bugging you, Bryant?’

‘Just the fact that you could lose your job for this.’

She shrugged. ‘It’s mine to lose.’

‘Yeah, but sometimes you need to just stop and take a minute to think.’

‘Tell you what. You stand there and think on my behalf while I get on with doing my job.’

She walked away from him and headed towards the professor. Doctor Matthews came hurtling across the site like he’d been shot from a catapult.

‘Detective, I can’t allow this. What the devil do you think you’re doing?’

‘My job.’

‘It’s not your job until you have authorisation to excavate.’

‘Who said anything about excavation? We’re just going to dig a bit.’

All parties had converged and seven of them stood staring at the machine.

‘You could damage the entire investigation by acting too hastily.’

‘Doctor, if a body is discovered I will adopt the correct protocols immediately but at the moment all we have is an anomaly. For all we know it might be nothing more than a dead dog.’ She instantly realised what she’d said. ‘Sorry, Professor.’

‘This is a potential crime scene,’ Matthews argued.

‘Which could have been dug by any old metal-detecting enthusiast by now, in which case no protocols would have been followed at all.’

That was her logic and she was sticking to it.

Matthews’ mouth tensed when he realised that she was not going to be dissuaded.

His eyes travelled the circle of people and then came back to her. ‘Your impetuousness is going to jeopardise the careers of all these people.’

Kim nodded her understanding. She turned to Bill and Ben. ‘Pass me the shovel.’

‘Guv ...’

Bill and Ben looked to the professor, who was looking at her.

‘Jesus Christ,’ she growled, grabbing a shovel. ‘Doctor Matthews, please feel free to return to the car until authorisation comes through. The rest of you, do whatever the hell you like.’

She lifted her arm and dropped the spade to the ground. Her right foot pushed the blade down as far as it would go. She removed the lump of earth and placed it to her left. She wielded the shovel again.

Doctor Matthews humphed and turned away. ‘I cannot be a party to this. Come on, Cerys.’

‘In a minute, Doctor,’ she said, without looking at him. She caught Kim’s eye. ‘I’d just like to observe for a while.’

The doctor hesitated before shaking his head. He walked back towards the car.

Kim smiled her thanks to the forensic technician. Her presence offered some protection and she knew it.

She threw down the shovel and repeated the process. The ground was hard and this would be a long process but it was better than standing around doing nothing.

‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ Bryant said, reaching for the second shovel.

He stood opposite her, about six feet away and dropped the shovel into the ground.

The professor looked pained. He shook his head. ‘No, no, no. Look if you’re going to do this, at least do it properly.’

For the next two hours she and Bryant formed a tag team with Bill and Ben taking turns at digging the feature as directed by both Cerys and Professor Milton.

Cerys had continually circled the area, consulting the data from the magnetometer. She had advised where to dig next and how deep they should go.

Cerys leaned down close to where Kim was digging. ‘Detectives, I think you should step out now. Professor, can you pass me your bag of hand tools?’

Kim stepped out of the pit that was now six feet wide by eight feet long and a foot and a half deep.

Kim tried to dust herself down but spatters of damp mud and clay had dried into her trousers up to the knee.

Cerys and Professor Milton consulted over the data and pointed to areas in the pit. The boys entered the pit with gardening hand tools and took direction from Cerys.

Bryant stood beside her. ‘There’s never a dull day with you, is there?’

‘At least you’ve burned off that bacon bap from earlier.’

‘And then some.’

Her own stomach was beginning to rumble. The half slice of toast she’d eaten at six thirty was long gone.

‘It’s almost two. Not much daylight left,’ Bryant observed.

Bill or Ben motioned for Cerys to enter the pit. She knelt down and used something which looked like an oversized blusher brush to dust at a particular area. Kim noted that she cared nothing about the dirt and mud that was now caked to her light blue jeans.

She brushed a second time and then stopped. ‘Okay, I need anyone who is not forensically trained to step out of the pit, immediately.’

Cerys remained in the pit alone. She turned and met Kim’s gaze. ‘We have bones, Detective and unless it had five fingers, it isn’t a dead dog.’

No one spoke for a few seconds as they all contemplated the discovery.

Then, as though the newly exposed bones had emitted some kind of siren two squad cars screeched onto the gravel and her mobile began to ring.

It was Woody. Thank God.

‘Stone, get back here and bring Bryant with you,’ he barked.

‘Sir, I need to let you know ...’

‘Anything you have to say can wait until you get here.’

‘But there are bones in this ground.’

‘And I’ve already told you to get back here immediately and if that’s longer than fifteen minutes don’t bother coming back at all.’

The line went dead. She turned to Bryant. ‘I think he knows.’

Bryant rolled his eyes.

‘Go on, I’ll see you there.’

Bryant nodded and headed back to his car.

‘Listen folks, thanks for your help but if anyone asks, Bryant never touched a thing, okay?’

They all nodded.

Kim sprinted to her bike and donned her helmet and gloves. She pulled away from the site and prepared to face the music.