[2022 Wattys shortlisted story]
A missing family. A twenty year old murder. An old ghost story. And a private detective from London. But what do they all have in common? It's the job of DCI Neo Denzel to figure it all out.
In the quiet town of Mart...
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Neo surveyed the scene with a grimace. It was already dark, but the floodlights showed off everything with cold clarity.
The remains of a body were being brought out piece by piece and assembled on a tarp. They had stabilised the tunnel behind the partition enough that Colin and his team were down there trying to gain any piece of evidence, though Neo wasn't hopeful.
He could see the flashing blue lights through the trees, the only sign that he was in civilisation. In one of them, Charlie was being seen to, her statement taken, since she refused to leave the scene.
'Chief,' Gwilt said gruffly.
Neo nodded in his direction but remained silent as he watched Barry comb over the body, though by this point, it was nothing more than a skeleton.
Barry sat back on his hunches for a few seconds before he rose and approached the two waiting officers.
'What are we looking at, Barry?' Neo's voice was laced with fatigue. He was fed up with finding nothing but death every time he went looking for the Bennett family. It felt like an ominous sign that he was struggling to shake.
Barry removed his mask and cleared his throat.
'A teenage male, passed the age of puberty. Difficult to say what caused death.' He pointed to the cracked skull. 'The tunnel collapse could have easily caused this skull fracture. It could have caused 97% of his injuries.'
'And the other 3%?' Neo watched as Barry considered his next words.
The pathologist walked back to the body and carefully picked up the radius bone. He pulled a magnifier from his kit and examined it once more. When he'd seen it the first time, he wondered whether the fading light had tricked him, but the marks remained whichever way he moved it.
He placed it carefully back on the tarp, trying to give the body as much dignity as he could.
'We're still missing everything below the forearms,' Gwilt pointed out. 'Though the teams are still excavating the collapse. It's possible they'll find more.'
'I highly doubt they will,' Barry responded. 'The marks on the boy's radius and ulna indicate they were likely sawn off. Hacked might be a better description,' he finished bluntly, painting a bleak picture for Neo and Gwilt.
'And there is no way that the tunnel collapsing could have done this?' Gwilt wiped his brow and stared at the remains uneasily.
'No. It would have been a sharp instrument. More likely an axe or large knife.'
'Would he have been alive when it happened?'
Barry looked at Neo, shaking his head. 'I don't know, Neo. I doubt we'll ever know. If he had been, then the blood loss would have killed him.'
Neo nodded, knowing that would have been the answer, but he'd hoped Barry would have said no. The idea that someone had mutilated the boy whilst he'd still been alive was hard to swallow, especially with his own kids waiting for him at home.
