Page 98 of Silent Scream
‘Getting close. Readings indicate that the mass is less than two feet down.’
Unlike Cerys who, as a scientist, would not assume it to be a body until she saw bone, Kim already knew in her gut that it was the third girl. Now it was just a case of which one was which.
‘This one will be signed off later and filled in this afternoon.’
‘Anything further?’
‘We have the beads,’ she said, moving towards a fold-up trestle table. ‘Eleven of them. And this.’ Cerys held up a plastic bag.
Kim took it from her and felt the thickness of the fabric.
‘I’m guessing flannel,’ Cerys offered.
‘Pyjamas?’
‘Possibly, but only the top.’
‘No bottoms?’
Cerys shook her head.
Kim said nothing. The absence of a lower garment put a picture in her head that made her teeth grind together.
‘Could have been a different fabric, mismatched nightwear, the material may already have decomposed.’
Kim nodded. She could hope.
‘Nothing else?’
Cerys handed her a Tupperware dish full of mud-encrusted fragments.
‘Small pieces of metal but nothing that I think is linked to her murder.’
‘What next?’
Cerys wiped her hands on her jeans. ‘Up to site three, coming?’
Kim followed to the latest tent.
‘Just in time, Guv,’ Dawson said as she entered.
She looked down at the unmistakeable shape of a foot protruding from the dark earth.
Seven people within the tent stared down into the shallow grave. It didn’t matter that it was what most of them had expected to find. Each body deserved a moment of respect, a silent declaration of unity when all parties vowed to do their part in bringing the perpetrator to justice.
Cerys turned to face her. Kim met her gaze. It was haunted but firm.
Her voice was low and thick as she said what everyone else around them was thinking.
‘Kim, you have got to find the bastard who did this.’
Kim nodded and exited the tent. She had every intention of doing exactly that.
Forty-Nine
‘Guv, I’ve got a message,’ Bryant said as they exited the tent. ‘Doctor Dan has something he wants us to see.’
Kim said nothing as she headed back down the hill. Bryant started the car and headed towards Russells Hall hospital. He knew when to leave her alone.
