Unti Lucy Black Novel #3 Read Online Free PDF Page B

and opened the lid. Inside was a clear plastic bag containing what appeared to Lucy to be more like shingle than ash.
    â€œIs that how they’re meant to look?” Lucy asked.
    Duffy nodded. “The bones don’t burn so they have to crush them instead,” he said. “That gives it that texture.”
    â€œSo that’s definitively a person in there.”
    Duffy nodded. “As best as I can tell by looking,” he said.
    â€œYou didn’t remove the body from the coffin on your way up, did you?” Fleming asked Ciaran Duffy.
    The boy blinked at him, then shook his head. “No. Why would I do that?”
    â€œCould someone else have removed the body?”
    Ciaran shrugged. “No. I left here and took it straight to All Hallows. They took it from me and I called back a few hours later.”
    â€œYou called back?”
    â€œI went into Belfast a run,” Ciaran said, glancing at his father. “It takes three hours sometimes to burn the deceased.”
    â€œDid you stop along the way? Could someone else have swapped the body?”
    Ciaran shook his head. “No. I called into the shop at the bottom of the Glenshane for a can of Coke, but that was it. A ­couple of minutes at most. And the van was sitting in the shop forecourt the whole time.”
    â€œIf anyone did swap the body, it must have been in the crematorium. Check with them. Either that, or the man you pulled from the river isn’t Stuart Carlisle,” Gabriel Duffy said, standing up and moving to beside his son.

 
    Chapter Nine
    L UCY WAS JUST pulling into Maydown station, where the PPU was based, when her mobile rang. It was Tara Gallagher, a DS in CID, who had started in Foyle District around the same time as Lucy.
    â€œBurns wants you to come across,” she said. “The body in the bin. We think he was a homeless man. Burns is hoping you might be able to identify him.”
    Fleming nodded when Lucy passed on Tara’s request. “I’ll call All Hallows on the way across; get them to check whether Stuart Carlisle’s remains ever made it as far as Belfast. Can I use your phone? My own’s out of charge.”
    Lucy handed it across to him. “Do you think Duffy is lying?”
    â€œOne of the Duffys is lying. I’m undecided which one.”
    Lucy glanced across. “There wouldn’t be a chance that someone in All Hallows was involved?”
    â€œAnd drove the body back down to Derry to get rid of it?” Fleming shook his head. “I don’t see it. We’ll check and see, but I think that whatever happened to that body, it happened here.”
    T HE WASTE DISPOSAL unit from which DS Gallagher had called was only a few minutes away, in the industrial estate in Campsie. Even as they approached, they could see the activity outside the building. Several CSIs, clad in white paper suits, were already coming out of the building.
    Tara met them at the entrance and waited as they were signed through at the cordon set up at the doorway.
    â€œI thought the city dump was in Culmore,” Fleming said.
    â€œIt was, apparently,” Tara explained. “That closed a few years back and this crew have been handling all the waste disposal for the city since. The lorries bring it all back here and then it’s sorted and taken on to landfill or recycled.”
    â€œLook at you,” Lucy said, nudging Tara. “An expert.”
    â€œOn rubbish, yeah,” Tara said, reddening. “That’s why I became a cop.”
    â€œWhat’s the story with the body?” Fleming asked. “You think he’s homeless?”
    â€œHe’s dressed like it,” Tara said. “They ran his prints through the system and got a hit. He was lifted for drunk and disorderly a few years back. He gave his address back then as a hostel in Derry.”
    â€œIf they have his prints on the system, they must also have his name. Why do you need us to