‘How is she?’
‘Surprisingly, she’s okay. Her family visit her often.’
‘Crazy about what happened to Mary, right?’
Graham sighs. ‘I’d rather not talk about her, Mr Mallow. I hope you understand.’
‘I understand perfectly, Detective. Say no more.’
The way Mr Mallow speaks the words sends a shiver down Graham’s spine, which has nothing to do with the chill factor. Mary is a topic of conversation he never discusses and luckily, Mr Mallow, after being told, honours his wish. He’s a good man.
Graham slows as they near the top where the hill gets steeper. He stops under the canopy and shines the light up into the tree. ‘Welcome to The Hanging Tree, Mr Mallow.’
Mr Mallow glances at him. ‘You failed to mention that snippet of information in your previous phone conversation.’
‘I thought it would be a nice surprise for you.’
‘Indeed it is. The Hanging Tree. Nothing to do withThe Hunger Games, I’m assuming?’
‘You’ve lost me.’
Mr Mallow shakes his head. ‘Never mind. I should have known you wouldn’t get that book reference. I’m assuming there’s a story behind the name?’
‘You assume correct.’ He directs the beam into the branches again, highlighting the outline of the scarecrow above. ‘There it is,’ he says matter-of-factly. He watches Mr Mallows’ eyes travel upwards, but then they freeze when they reach the object swinging above.
‘What the hell?’
‘I told you … it’s weird and …’
‘Detective, are you seeing what I’m seeing?’
Graham frowns, returning his gaze to the tree. He studies the scarecrow, but this time, something is there that hadn’t been there before.
‘Holy shit,’ he says.
The scarecrowisbleeding.
Chapter 16
STEPHEN
He squints into the branches, through the gloomy darkness and the fluorescent torchlight. It must be a trick of the light, combined with the moonlight and his tired eyes. There’s no way he is seeing what he thinks he’s seeing; a bleeding corpse hanging in a tree.
‘Holy shit,’ says the detective. ‘That’s a body.’
Stephen’s eyes widen. ‘Are you sure it’s not a scarecrow?’
Detective Williams lowers the torchlight and shines it right in his eyes. Stephen raises his hand, shielding himself as the detective says, ‘I think I know what a dead body looks like, considering my previous career.’
‘But you said you saw this thing up there this morning, right?’
‘Yesterday, actually.’
‘Right. And you’re sure it wasn’t a dead body then?’
‘I’m sure. It was a scarecrow.’ Detective Williams’ voice is deadpan, clearly not in the mood to joke around anymore. Their previous chat had been on the lighter side, but now it has switched to a more sober tone. Dealing with a dead body had not been on his agenda for this evening. He’d beenhoping to arrive and start his research straight away, but now things have derailed quite spectacularly.
Detective Williams returns the beam of light to the branches. He shakes his head. ‘There’s definitely blood dripping down the jacket. I need to call this in.’
