Graham Brack [Brack - A Second Death

A SECOND DEATH

Josef Slonsk Investigations

Book Five

Graham Brack

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

The dark water bubbled white as it skipped across the rocks. While the centre of the river flowed serenely on, all the energy appeared to be concentrated near the banks, but here and there the water became still where obstructions narrowed the channel.

The late September sun skittered across the surface as the river turned to head towards the sunrise, illuminating the overhanging tree branches and the scattered debris, a shattered plank of wood, an empty plastic milk carton and a girls body, the head wedged against a protruding tree root and the blonde hair streaming behind like weed on a rock as it clung to her sodden back.

The two young hikers who had spotted her sat shivering against a tree, their wet boots and socks drying on the path. The paramedics had wrapped them in foil blankets, but how much of their tremor was due to the cold was hard to assess. One had taken a photograph before they waded in to retrieve her and a technician was busy transferring it to a spare memory card. The pathologist, Dr Novk, was examining the body on the bank and supervising the paramedics who were to take her to the mortuary. At length he stood up, nodded to them to take her away and walked over to the car where Captain Josef Slonsk was leaning with both arms on the roof, talking into his mobile phone.

Can we cut the bit where I ask you lots of questions and you pull a face and tell me its far too early to say? he asked Novk.

If you like, but thats one of the best bits for me. Keeping you on tenterhooks is what makes this job worthwhile.

Slonsk broke off to end the call before resuming his attempt to wheedle useful information out of the pathologist.

Time of death?

Too early to say.

But, if pushed?

Lets tell you what I can say. I think shes probably been in the water about thirty-six hours but it could be twelve hours either way. Its very difficult to estimate until you get significant wrinkling.

Cause of death?

No visible wounds, but the fact that she is well dressed but wearing no underwear is suggestive.

Slonsk grimaced. He hated child murders at any time, but ones in which the victim had been molested first were especially difficult for him. Like most police, he could never understand why people did these things.

Was she raped?

Too soon I think so, but I cant be sure. There was certainly vaginal penetration with something. I suspect the water has washed a lot of blood away but Ill be looking to see if the penetration may have been the cause of death.

Any idea of her age?

Based purely on dentition, somewhere between ten and twelve, probably nearer the lower end.

Let me know what you can as soon as you can, Slonsk said, and patted Novk encouragingly on the back before striding off to see what Officer Jan Navrtil was doing.

Nothing in the pockets, sir, Navrtil anticipated the first question.

Labels in the clothes?

Not in the jacket. We couldnt see inside the dress and Dr Novk didnt want to disturb it here.

Its a shame schools dont have uniforms any longer.

Ive asked for details of any lost girls aged eight to thirteen just to make sure we dont miss her.

Slonsk nodded and stood gazing out over the Vltava river.

We know where she ended up, lad, but who knows where she was heaved in?

Its a busy river that flows through some populated areas, sir. Surely the fact that she wasnt discovered before now suggests she was thrown in somewhere quite near?

Slonsk consulted his map. We need to talk to somebody who knows this water well. One of the boat owners, for example. Id have thought that once the body was caught in the mainstream it would be dragged away from the banks. Its a wide river. That makes me think youre right. Or it reached the Vltava from a tributary.

Dr Novk said hell get one of the technicians to mock up a photograph of her as she would have appeared in life.

Slonsk nodded to show that he had heard, but did not say anything.

Ive got statements from the hikers, sir. Can we let them go now? Navrtil continued.

Contact details checked?

Their identity cards check out, sir.

Then let them go, though I suspect this has spoiled their day out a bit.

Slonsk was not the big, boisterous figure he had long been. Part of the reason for that was that Officer Kristna Peiperov was not there. After a little over a year of working for Slonsk she had been seconded to the Director of Criminal Police to act as his Personal Assistant for a year. This was a great opportunity for her and Slonsk had encouraged her to take it, but in practice it had proved mind-crushingly boring. The Director spent a lot of time in meetings so the chatter and frequent coffee breaks that had characterised her time with Slonsk had disappeared and her inclination was to visit her old office at every opportunity where things were always livelier.

Against this, she had to recognise that frequent visits provoked enquiries about her motives, because she and Navrtil were engaged, a circumstance which accounted for Navrtils general lack of spark since she had been separated from him during working hours. He still worked diligently and well, but things had been different since Slonsks promotion, an elevation that Slonsk had resisted for so long but which Captain Lukas had engineered by the simple expedient of retiring and threatening to recommend either of the other lieutenants, Dvornk or Doleal, if Slonsk did not accept his job. Knowing that Slonsk would sooner pull out his own teeth with pliers than work under either of those, he had correctly calculated that this would spur an application from Slonsk, whatever his feelings about becoming a captain and taking on responsibility for the team.

No sooner had Slonsk done so than they had lost Doleal. The murder of a policeman in Pardubice left the criminal team there short of numbers so Doleal had been loaned to them. The subsequent arrest and suspension of two senior officers from the team for impeding the investigation had left the department in disarray, so Doleal had been appointed as the new captain there. Sadly the injuries that he had received at the hands of those colleagues had meant that four months later Doleal was only just taking up his new role, and had been given his former assistant Rada to help staff his team. This left Slonsk with a very depleted squad of his own. The old team of a captain, three lieutenants and four other officers had suddenly become Slonsk, Navrtil, Dvornk and Hauzer, and finding some replacements was testing Slonsk to the utmost, depressing his spirits and making him less exuberant than was normally the case.

Over the succeeding weeks Slonsk had read a number of files relating to officers who thought that they would like to work in crime but none of the folders he had ploughed through encouraged him to believe that the answer lay within their covers.

Chapter 2

Navrtil disliked going to the mortuary, whilst completely understanding that it was a necessary part of his job. It was not that he was particularly squeamish, but he felt that the activities there were too impersonal. He therefore attempted to redress the balance a little by silently reciting prayers for the dead as he watched Novk and his team at work.

On this occasion he felt hindered by his inability to insert a name where the prayer called for one. He appreciated the gentle way in which Novk dealt with the young girl, particularly the fact that he kept covering her with a sheet to preserve her modesty so far as he could while he worked, but it was still horrible.