Page 48 of Dream a Little Dream

“Dr Chong.” Kenny managed a weak smile in return. “Nice to sort of see you.”

She lowered her mask for a moment, offering a brief smile before turning back to the body. “Male, late teens or early twenties. Likely died a couple of days ago.”

A boy, tangled in the undergrowth by the riverbank, clothes soaked through, torn in places where the brambles had snagged him, face pale and lifeless, was dead.

“Found this morning by a dog walker,” Jack said, watching Kenny’s reaction. “You didn’t run today, huh?”

“No.” Kenny kept his gaze fixed on the young man and not on how Jack had flippantly reminded everyone of how close they’d once been.

“Good job, or you might have stumbled on this.”

“Who is he?”

“Student ID says Rahul Mishra.” Jack flipped open his notebook. “Sent a PC to the university earlier. Reported missing a couple days ago.”

Kenny crouched, studying the body. “How did he die?”

“Drowning,” Dr Chong answered. “But I’ll know more once I get him back to the lab. Whenever that is.” She glanced pointedly at Jack, signalling her impatience to move forward.

Kenny glanced up at Jack. “You don’t think it’s as simple as that?”

“Keep looking.”

Kenny had always been able to read Jack. He might be a closed book to most, but to him, he was like a well-worn paperback. So Kenny shifted his attention back to the body, mind already working. Something wasn’t right. He shuffled closer, brambles snagging his suit trousers as he inspected the scene. The body lay awkwardly, limbs tangled in the undergrowth like a discarded puppet. The kid, no older than eighteen, stared vacantly into the canopy above. Life drained.

Kenny sighed. He hated this. Fuckinghatedit. The kid couldn’t have been more than a first-year, fresh on campus. It reminded him of the suicide a couple of years back—the one that had hit the student body hard. After that, the university had ramped up pastoral care, welfare checks, the whole shebang. They were supposed to catch kids like this before they ended up here, in the dirt, in the cold.

Could it be an accident? Sure. Maybe he’d gone for a late-night stroll, thinking the woodland was as safe as it was beautiful. The river wasn’t far off; it was deeper than it seemed, with a current strong enough to pull a non-swimmer under. The water would’ve been freezing this time of year, especially at night. A shock like that could’ve knocked the kid out before he even had a chance to fight.

Still, something didn’t sit right.

Kenny straightened, the weight of the scene pressing down on him. He had seen too many of these. Bodies in strange positions, explanations that felt too convenient. Easy answers always made him uneasy. He exhaled, ready to move on, when something caught his eye. His breath hitched.

“You see it?” Jack crouched beside him, edging closer to him than most would. Closer than any other detective might.

Kenny could smell the lingering hints of his usual aftershave hovering distinctly beneath the rotten flesh. Bleu de Chanel.Creature of habit.And he clung onto it for a moment, shunting himself back to the past when they’d been doing things like this on the regular.

No one had known back then that the PhD student following the force around various crime scenes for his research had been sleeping with the PC on the investigating team. Kenny had met Jack in the incident room and he’d known the moment he’d shaken his hand they’d change each other’s lives. For better and for worse. It hadn’t been the same pulse-pounding thrill he’d had when he’d laid eyes on a pink-haired beauty in the middle of a dancefloor, but it had been as devastating. And they’d kept their relationship secret from their superiors for various reasons. There were suspicions, though. Because they stood closer than others would. Like they were now.

Kenny locked onto the detail on the body that stopped him cold. Wrapped tightly around the kid’s neck was a rose vine,thorns embedded in the flesh, tiny pricks of blood marking where the sharp points had dug in. The vine hadn’t strangled him—it wasn’t nearly strong enough for that. It was just there. Deliberate. Placed after death, maybe, like a cruel consideration.

“The vine,” Kenny said.

“No rose bushes around here for him to have been caught up in. Not for miles.”

Kenny narrowed his eyes, processing the scene from a new angle. “Put there postmortem?”

“Chong agrees.”

The vine wasn’t just an odd detail. It wasintentional. Kenny could feel it in his gut. And it was arose. “This is a message.” He used a finger to pry the vine up from the man’s neck and get a better look.

Jack brushed his shoulder to Kenny’s, and it was too familiar. Toointimate.

Like Kenny’s fingers around Aaron’s wrist earlier.

“That’s what I’m thinking,” Jack said. “See why I had to bring you in?”

Kenny lowered his head, a tightness building in his chest. “It can’t be related.” Although that was more hope than fact.

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