Catch the Fallen Sparrow Read Online Free PDF

parents.’
    â€˜Unfortunately,’ Joanna said, ‘he had none of that. Accident of birth and he ends up like this, on the slab aged ten.’
    Cathy Parker replaced the sheet, covering the boy’s face, and the mortician’s assistant wheeled the trolley back into the refrigerated temporary grave.
    â€˜So where do I look?’ Joanna muttered more to herself than out loud. ‘And where do I begin?’
    Cathy was drying her hands on the towel. ‘Have you heard anything from Matthew?’ she asked casually.
    Joanna flushed. ‘A letter,’ she said, ‘before he went.’
    Cathy Parker gave her a hard stare. ‘Jane Levin and I have been friends for many years.’
    Joanna closed her ears to it.
    She returned to the station and met Mike Korpanski coming out of her office. ‘So you’re back?’ he said. ‘How did the PM go?’
    â€˜As we thought – manual strangulation. We’ve informed the coroner’s office. They’ve set the inquest for next week. There doesn’t seem much doubt about the verdict. Homicide.’
    He nodded.
    â€˜There were a few important facts brought to light that you should know about, Mike.’ She looked at the tall DS with his black hair and muscular frame – the result of many hours spent at the local gym – and she thought how much she had grown to depend on him in the six months they had worked together. How very different was the easy, friendly relationship that had sprung up recently from the early weeks of resentment and hostility.
    â€˜The boy was the victim of repeated abuse – from an early age, five or six, both physical and probably mental. Cathy Parker found unmistakable evidence of repeated sexual abuse. But none recently and the motive for his murder was not sexual. He had also been burned with a cigarette on more than one occasion and was a drug abuser.’
    Mike gave a quick snort. ‘A typical teenager then?’
    â€˜Hardly,’ she said.
    Mike frowned. ‘So it wasn’t a sexual assault?’
    â€˜No – it didn’t look like it. No clothes torn, no recent scarring. He’d been left alone for a number of months – Cathy guessed a year. The abuse had stopped. Was there anything you particularly wanted?’ she asked, nodding towards her office door.
    â€˜Yes.’ He grinned. ‘The soldier boys – the pair who found the body. They’re here waiting to make a statement.’
    She looked at him. ‘Anything I should pick up on?’
    He shook his head. ‘Not really.’ Then he added, ‘I suppose you noticed the one with the red hair had tattoos? Love and Hate.’
    â€˜They’re common enough.’
    His eyes met hers. ‘They really do look the same. But you’ve seen the boy’s tattoos closer than I have. See for yourself.’
    She nodded, then hesitated. ‘I think I’ll see the other one first. His name?’
    â€˜Thomas Jones. Taffy was a Welshman ...’
    Tom boy shuffled in awkwardly, still in bulky camouflage and heavy boots.
    Joanna sat down behind her desk, switched on the tape recorder, recorded the date, time, two officers present.
    â€˜Private Jones,’ she said, ‘take your time and tell me what happened.’
    He swallowed. ‘We was doin’ exercises on the moors ...’
    â€˜Roughly what time was it?’
    â€˜About five.’ He looked wary. ‘We thought it was some meat cooking, you see.’
    â€˜Why don’t you start at the beginning,’ she suggested helpfully.
    â€˜We was doing exercises up on the Roaches,’ he said again, rubbing his chin and smearing the camouflage messily across his face. ‘They was just comin’ up over the back of the hill.’ His enthusiasm was growing. ‘It made it easier for us.’
    She gave him a questioning look.
    â€˜We was divided up into two teams,’ he explained. ‘A and