Hidden ( CSI Reilly Steel #3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

together in a place free from the pain and misery that had surrounded me for so long. We must find our sanctuary, a place fit for eternal beauty, somewhere the pain and sorrow of this world had no place.
                  A land where I will be king and we will protect the righteousness of youth. The cruelty of this world casts a spell on the innocents, and together we will punish those who do not know the beauty that lies beneath their nostrils, and who don’t deserve the blessings that have been bestowed upon them.
                  I will revoke those blessings and bring them to a place where they belong –  beside me in paradise.
     
     
     
    Reilly entered the darkened morgue  and flicked on the lights. The bright glow of the fluorescents bounced back off the gleaming aluminum worktables, the harsh light emphasizing the shadows around her eyes.  She glanced up at the clock – 01:20 – and gave a snort of self-derision.  Why would anyone in their right mind be working at this hour of the night if they didn’t have to?
    But she knew the answer, knew it as well as she knew herself. Leaving her examination of the girl’s body until the morning would simply be a waste of time – she couldn’t sleep knowing that Lucy and Gary were still out on that lonely stretch of road searching for clues in the muddy ditches before the rain washed everything away. She couldn’t sleep without figuring out what it was about the corpse that bothered her, what the faint aroma that she had smelled on the girl’s skin was.
    Reilly’s heightened sense of smell had always been one of her best assets and had served her well throughout the course of many investigations. As such, she knew better than to ever discount it.
    She had called ahead, and the body was ready and waiting for her on a mortuary slab; pale, almost ethereal on the examination table. Reilly slipped on her latex gloves and allowed herself to simply observe.
    She walked slowly round the table. In the brightness she could now see that the girl wore no make-up and her ears were not pierced. In fact, there was no indication of  jewelry of any kind. Unusual for a teenager in this day and age.
    Reilly examined her face more closely. Her skin was flawless, eyes a cold shade of pale blue – these things and her vivid red curls indicated Celtic origins.
      Reilly gently parted the hair – no colorants used there either; the lush red was completely natural.  She leaned over and softly inhaled. There was the smell again. It wasn't unpleasant, and definitely not a synthetic or chemical scent; no, it was natural. She was also almost certain she recognized it, but couldn’t quite place it – it was lurking at the back of her mind, something from childhood, a deep-seated memory of warm summer days, picnics in the park with her folks and Jess…
    Pushing it aside for the moment, she continued her examination.
    She selected a comb from a nearby tray of equipment and began to tease through the girl’s hair for debris. As she did so, she watched what came out onto the sample dish. The hair was remarkably clean – just some small fragments of debris from the road, and then something else … Some kind of plant matter?
    Reilly checked the area of the hair she had been working on – tangled in amongst the thick curls were indeed some fine strands of greenery. She gently freed it from the hair, laid it in the palm of her gloved hand, and sniffed.
    Definitely the same smell again. But maddeningly, whatever it was still eluded her. She put the samples in the dish for analysis and moved on.
    Her gaze ran down the girl’s cold bare arms to her hands. No nail polish on her fingers – no surprise there – but the skin on her hands seemed rather rough. This was a girl who was evidently used to manual work … a farm girl maybe?
    She’d been found in a rural area so that fitted. Yet, the preternatural paleness of her skin didn’t indicate much time spent outdoors.