Page 87 of Silent Scream
‘Dawson wants me back at the site straight away.’
Bryant chuckled. ‘Woody wants me to get you back to the station within the same timeframe and last I heard, talented as you are, you’ve yet to master being in two places at the same time.’ He turned to her. ‘So, Guv, column A or column B?’
Kim looked at him and raised one eyebrow.
‘Yeah, I thought that’s what you were gonna say.’
Forty-Three
Bryant pulledthe car onto the dirt patch. It had taken forty minutes to travel eight miles from the centre of Birmingham.
Kim opened the door. ‘Check in with Dawson, make sure he’s okay.’
‘Will do, Guv.’
She trotted to the third tent. The site was beginning to look more like a festival concessions area than a crime scene. She paused at the entrance. She turned and looked down the hill at the middle house and the prisoner within, and gave a little wave. Just in case.
Cerys turned as she entered.
Kim looked down into the pit. ‘Where’s she gone?’ she asked, sexing the body without thinking. There was no sure way of knowing this second body was that of a female except for her gut and that was normally good enough for her.
‘Dan has the body in the other tent. It was removed about half an hour ago. We’ve had chance to sieve a third of the pit and I thought you might like to know we found more ...’
‘Beads,’ Kim finished for her.
‘How did you know?’
Kim shrugged. ‘Anything else?’
Cerys sighed heavily and nodded slowly. ‘We’ve carried out a full sweep of the site and found ...’
‘One more mass,’ Kim interrupted again.
Cerys placed her right hand on her hip. ‘Shall I just go home now?’
Kim smiled. ‘Sorry, I’m just tired. One of those days. Will this second area be completed tomorrow?’
‘First thing in the morning I’ll get started on the excavation of area three. We haven’t marked it yet. We don’t want to give the vultures a head start,’ Cerys said, meaning the press. ‘We don’t yet know for certain that the third anomaly is another body.’
Kim felt the certainty in the pit of her stomach.
‘The press are watching our every move so I had the guys complete the sweep and then pack the machine away and keep clear of the area of interest so they don’t get suspicious.’
‘How will you know exactly where to dig if you haven’t marked it?’ Kim asked.
‘I’ve paced it from the edge of the tent. Trust me, I’ll know.’
Kim did trust her.
‘The good news is that site one can be closed down and filled in tomorrow. I just need to sign it off and the first tent can be removed.’
‘Anything else of interest?’
‘A few bits of cloth; all labelled, bagged and sent back to the lab. May help with identification.’
After their meeting with Nicola, Kim guessed it was only going to be the choice of three.
‘Anything else?’
