Some Lie and Some Die Read Online Free PDF

quarrelled, nor did either of them seem disabled. They were holding hands and running like Olympic sprinters. In a dirty and tattered version of the tee-shirt-jeans uniform, their long hair wind-blown, they had lost their primeval beauty of the night before. The magic and the wonder was all gone. They were just an ordinary young couple running, breathless and—frightened. Wexford took a step in their direction, suddenly concerned.
    They stopped dead in front of him. The girl’s face waswhite, her breath laboured and choked. ‘You’re police, aren’t you?’ the boy said before Wexford could speak. ‘Could you come, please? Come and see what …’
    ‘In the quarry,’ the girl said throatily. ‘Oh,
please
. It was such a shock. There’s a girl lying in the quarry and she’s—she’s dead. Ever so dead. Her face is—blood—horrible … Oh
God!’
She threw herself into the boy’s arms and sobbed.

4

    She was screaming hysterically.
    ‘You tell me,’ Wexford said to the boy.
    ‘We went to the quarry about ten minutes ago.’ He talked jerkily, stammering. ‘I—we—I’m with a party and Rosie’s with a party and—and we shan’t see each other again for a month. We wanted to be private but it’s still daylight and we looked for somewhere we wouldn’t be seen. Oh, Rosie, don’t. Stop crying. Can’t you
do something?’
    A crowd had gathered around them. Wexford spoke to a capable-looking girl. ‘Take her into one of the tents and make some tea. Make it hot and strong. One of you others, find Mr Silk and see if he’s got any brandy. Come along now. She’ll tell you all about it. She’ll want to.’
    Rose let forth a shriek. The other girl, justifying Wexford’s faith in her, slapped one of the wet white cheeks. Rosie gagged and stared.
    ‘That’s better,’ said Wexford. ‘Into the tent with you. You’ll be all right when you’ve had a hot drink.’ He went back to the boy. ‘What’s your name?’
    ‘Daniel. Daniel Somers.’
    ‘You found a girl’s body in the quarry?’ Suddenly The Greatheart burst into song. ‘God, I wish we could have a bit of hush. Where did you find it?’
    ‘Under some bushes—well, sort of trees—on the side where the wire is.’ Daniel shuddered, opening his eyes wide. ‘There were—flies,’ he said. ‘Her face was all over blood and it was sort of dried and there were flies—
crawling.’
    ‘Come and show me.’
    ‘Do I have to?’
    ‘It won’t take long,’ Wexford said gently. ‘You don’t have to look at her again, only show us where she is.’
    By now a fear that something had gone badly wrong had flurried the encampment on the side where they were standing, rumour ‘stuffing the ears of men with false reports’. People came out of tents to stare, others raised themselves on one elbow from the ground, briefly deaf to The Greatheart. A low buzz of conversation broke out as boys and girls asked each other if this was the beginning of a drug swoop.
    Daniel Somers, his face as white, his eyes as aghast as his girl friend’s, seemed anxious now to get the whole thing over. He scrambled down the chalk slope and the policemen followed him in less gainly fashion. As yet there was nothing to see, nothing alarming. Under the louring grey sky, thick, purplish, not a blue rift showing, the quarry grass seemed a brighter, more livid green. Light, obliquely and strangely filtered under cloud rims, gave a vivid glow to the white faces of the wild roses and the silver undersides of birch leaves, lifting and shivering in the wind. On the little lawn the harebells shook like real bells ringing without sound.
    Daniel hesitated a few feet from where a young birch grew out of a dense, man-high tangle of honeysuckle and dogwood. He shivered, himself near to hysteria.
    ‘In there.’ He pointed. ‘I didn’t touch her.’
    Wexford nodded.
    ‘You get back to Rosie now.’
    The bushes had no thorns and were easily lifted. They surrounded the root of the tree