Whispers of the Dead Read Online Free PDF Page A

facility I'd become well and
truly acclimatized to it. But I still accepted the jar, wiping the scented
Vaseline on my top lip. My eyes instantly watered from the pungent
vapour. I took a deep breath, trying to still my jangling nerves. What the hell's wrong with you? You're acting like this is your first time.
The sun was warm on my back as I waited for Tom to get ready.
Low and dazzling, it brushed the tops of the trees as it made its slow
descent into evening. It would come up again in the morning no
matter what happened here, I reminded myself.
Tom finished zipping up his overalls and gave a cheery smile. 'Let's
see what we've got.'
Pulling on our latex gloves, we walked up the overgrown path to
the cabin.
The cabin door was closed. Gardner paused outside. He'd left his
jacket with the boxes of overalls, and had put on a pair of plastic
overshoes and gloves. Now he slipped on a white surgical mask. I saw
him take a deep breath before he opened the door and we went
inside.
I've seen human bodies in most states of death. I know how bad
the different stages of putrefaction smell, can even differentiate
between them. I've encountered bodies that have been burned to the
bone, that have been reduced to soap-like slime after weeks underwater.
None are pleasant, but it's an inevitable part of my work, and
one I thought I was inured to.
lint I'd never experienced anything like this. The stench was
almost tangible. The nauseatingly sweet, bad-cheese stench of
decomposing flesh seemed to have been distilled and concentrated,
cutting through the menthol under my nose as though it wasn't
there.The cabin was alive with flies, swirling excitedly around us, but
they were almost incidental compared to the heat.
The inside of the cabin was like a sauna.
Tom grimaced. 'Good God . . .'
'Told you to wear shorts,' Gardner said.
The room was small and sparsely furnished. Several of the forensic
team had broken off what they were doing to glance over as we'd
gone in. Shuttered blinds had been pulled up to allow daylight in
through the windows on either side of the door. The floor was black
painted boards covered with threadbare rugs. A pair of dusty antlers
hung over a fireplace on one wall, while a stained sink, cooker and
fridge stood against another. The rest of the furniture - TV, sofa
and armchairs - had been roughly pushed to the sides, leaving the
centre of the room clear, except for a small dining table.
The body was lying on it.
It was naked, spread-eagled on its back, arms and legs draped over
the table edges. Swollen by gases, the torso resembled an overstuffed
kitbag that had burst open. Maggots dripped from it to the floor, so
many of them that they looked like boiling milk. An electric radiator
stood next to the table, all three of its bars shimmering yellow. As I
watched, a maggot dropped on to one of them and disappeared in a
fat sizzle.
Completing the tableau was a hard-backed chair that had been
positioned by the victim's head. It looked innocuous enough, until
you thought to wonder why it was there.
Someone had wanted a good view of what they were doing.
None of us had gone any further than the doorway. Even Tom
seemed taken aback.
'We left it like we found it,' Gardner said. 'Thought you'd want to
record the temperature yourself
He went up a notch in my estimation. Temperature was an important
factor in determining time since death, but not many
investigating officers I'd come across would have thought of that.
Still, on this occasion I almost wished he'd been less thorough. The
combination of heat and stench was overpowering.
Tom nodded absently, his gaze already fixed on the body. 'Care to
do the honours, David?'
I set his case down on a clear area of floorboards and opened it up.
Tom still had much of the same battered equipment he'd had since
I'd known him, everything well worn and neatly ordered in its place.
But while he might be a traditionalist at