Dead Level (The DI Nick Dixon Crime Series Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page B

found another cigarette butt there,’ he said, ‘Same brand. And some ash.’
    ‘Let’s have a look in the bedroom,’ said Janice.
    ‘Follow me,’ said Watson.
    They managed to squeeze past Roger Poland’s large frame and into the bedroom. It was a small room with a low ceiling and a double bed that had only been slept in on one side.
    ‘See the blood spatter?’ asked Watson, pointing to the wall just inside the door. ‘Looks like she got out of bed and met her attacker in the doorway.’ Watson looked up. ‘There’s lighter spray on the ceiling, possibly from the knife as it was thrust . . .’
    ‘We get the picture,’ said Janice.
    Jane looked out of the window at the back garden. A scientific services officer was looking in the shed at the bottom of the garden and another was photographing one of the panels in the wooden fence that ran along the right hand boundary. An area of flowerbed in front of him had been taped off. On the other side of the fence was a gravel track and then the River Parrett. It looked much narrower than Jane remembered it and was certainly narrower than it was in the middle of Bridgwater, which explained the ‘Dredge the Rivers!’ signs, perhaps.
    ‘We found this on the bedside table,’ said Watson.
    Jane looked back to see him handing a black and white photograph to Janice. It was a snapshot of an ultrasound scan. Janice looked at it and handed it back.
    ‘Roger will confirm if she was pregnant,’ said Watson.
    ‘Has anything been stolen?’ asked Janice, looking around the room .
    ‘Not as far as we can tell,’ replied Watson. ‘Her handbag’s on the floor in the living room. Her purse is still in it and her watch is there, look, just sitting on the bedside table.’
    ‘She’s still got her rings on,’ said Jane.
    Janice nodded.
    ‘Your van’s here, Mr Poland.’ The shout came from downstairs.
    ‘We’ll wait outside while they move her,’ said Janice.
    The lane outside was blocked by a black van when they got outside so Jane ducked back inside the tent. ‘Can we get out that way?’ she asked, pointing to the far wall.
    ‘Er, yes.’
    Watson unzipped a door in the wall of the tent and Jane stepped out on the far side. Janice followed.
    ‘Where are you going?’
    Jane walked up the slope to the gravel track and looked at the steel barrier. It was padlocked in the open position and was wide enough for a lorry, let alone a car.
    ‘National cycle network,’ said Jane, reading from the sign on the gatepost. Then she walked across to the river and looked down at the water. It was racing past the cottage, swirling as it went, and was getting perilously close to the top of the bank.
    ‘Tide must be in,’ said Janice.
    They both turned, looked back at the cottage from the top of the riverbank and then back at the river.
    ‘Is it me or is the water level higher than the cottage?’ asked Jane.
    ‘It’s higher,’ replied Janice.
    ‘And what do you notice about that fence?’ Jane was pointing to the back of the cottage.
    Janice shook her head. ‘What?’
    ‘It’s the wrong way round. Those horizontal struts should be on the inside, surely?’
    ‘I see what you mean.’
    ‘It’s like a ladder. My granny could get over that.’
    They watched two mortuary staff carrying the body of Elizabeth Perry to the back of the van on a stretcher.
    ‘You drive down here at the dead of night,’ continued Jane. ‘No street lighting. Turn, possibly, but leave your car up here, hidden behind these trees, and then hop over the garden fence. Then when you’re done, it’s out through the front door, puke up in the garden, in the car and gone.’
    Janice turned and looked at a farm on the other side of the river.
    ‘We’d better make sure the house to house team gets over there.’

    Jane watched the uniformed officers going from house to house as Janice drove back along the lane towards the church.
    ‘There’s Harry,’ said Jane, pointing to a car parked across the