CHAPTER ONE
A wild wind tugged relentlessly at the thick material of Oliver’s cloak as he dismounted his horse. He shivered and yanked the material up to his ears only for the wind to snatch it back down again. With a grunt of disgust, he threw a dour look at his friend and colleague, Rhys, and gave up.
“It’s through there,” Rhys muttered with a nod to the trees beside them.
Oliver studied the narrow break in the trees with little enthusiasm. It wasn’t the path that concerned him. It was what lay beyond; the reason he had been hauled out of bed at an ungodly hour of the morning, and in the middle of a storm as well.
“Brace yourself,” Rhys murmured when Oliver passed him.
Oliver lifted his brows and hesitated. “Is it that bad?”
The grim look on Rhys’s face was so uncharacteristically solemn that Oliver knew instantly what lay ahead must be worse than usual.
“Jesus,” Oliver hissed through teeth that were clenched partly because of the need to stop them rattling, and partly because of the sight that greeted him when he broke through the small copse of trees.
A heavy pall hung over the men who were already gathered around the partially buried corpse. They all turned to greet him when Oliver ambled closer but aside from the brief acknowledgement of Oliver’s presence, nobody spoke for several minutes. Instead, they all looked down at the small mound of soil at their feet, and the body that was partially buried within it.
“Who found her?” Oliver asked of Harry. “And when?”
Harry took a deep breath to speak only to immediately step back but only so he could breathe deeply and clear his lungs of the fetid stench of rotting human corpse. While Harry dealt with trying to keep his breakfast, Oliver lifted his brows at the man standing on the opposite side of the make-shift grave.
“Farmer Quigley found her,” Ryan reported. “He is throwing up in the trees as well. Phillip is keeping an eye on him. A villager mentioned to him that they saw someone up here yesterday. Farmer Quigley decided to come up here to make sure a sheep rustler hadn’t helped himself to his flock.” He nodded to a small herd huddled against the farthest corner of the adjacent field. “Anyway, Farmer Quigley came through these trees and found her lying here like this.”
“He found the mound of soil,” Oliver murmured.
“Nope. He found her partially buried.”
Oliver lifted his brows in surprise. “She was found like this? Farmer Quigley hasn’t dug her up?”
Rhys shook his head. “Whoever left her here didn’t bother to bury her properly. He was either disturbed by someone or didn’t have the time or couldn’t be bothered. We don’t know.”
“Maybe whoever dumped her wanted her to be found,” Oliver murmured thoughtfully.
Oliver studied the village nestled in the valley a quarter of a mile away. The stubby square tower of the old Norman church pointed to Heaven, the only protrusion amidst the small, sleepy rural village where he suspected nothing much ever happened. Several houses overlooked the bluff they were on, and many people would be able to see, if they cared to look, whoever was up here.
“Do you know something? I can distinctly remember standing in a spot very similar to this not so long ago,” Oliver murmured, more to himself than anybody else.
“That young girl, Felicity Inson, who was murdered several months back, was found in this very field,” Niall confirmed.
“Do you think we have a serial killer in our midst?” Phillip asked quietly when he re-joined the group. “Do you think that it might be possible that one or two of the young women who were kidnapped managed to get away? Might it be possible that they were taken to London and escaped but the killer found them and brought them back here where he murdered them? Should we be looking for a serial killer not a kidnapper?”
“No. We are still looking for kidnappers,” Oliver confirmed. “It is highly unlikely a murderer would kidnap someone and feed them to keep them alive for several weeks before he murdered them. The women were kidnapped for a reason. We just don’t know what that reason is yet. We know who the suspects are, though.”