Read Lifeless - 5 for Free Online

body was ful y clothed, same as Carol Garner. But I'd checked when I did the PM on her, so I looked anyway...'
    Thorne held his breath. He could feel the excitement building in the same place it always did: at the base of his skul . A tingling, a buzzing, a low throb of excitement and revulsion in advance of the detail to come. He hated it when it was sexual. There was always a slightly higher chance of a result, but stil , he hated it.
    Hendricks was equal y excited. 'It was Luminol and UV that did it in the end. Tiny patches al over her face and on her arms. It took me ages to work out what it was; it was actual y more about working out what it wasn't...'
    Thorne nodded. It was good news; if they caught him it almost certainly guaranteed a conviction, but it sickened him just the same. It was no consolation that the kil er would probably have done it after Ruth
    Murray had been kil ed. If anything, it made it worse.
    'Forty-eight hours then?'
    Hendricks held up a hand. 'Yeah, hopeful y. There's real y only a minuscule amount of the stuff and to be honest, I'm not even sure we can get anything. There may be some cel ular material, but I've certainly never heard of it being done...'
    Thorne stood up. 'Hang on, Phil, I'm lost here.., are we not talking about sperm?'
    Hendricks shook his head. 'Tears, mate. Dried tears.'
    Thorne's mouth actual y fel open a little. Hendricks casual y reached down for another can of beer. 'Fucker wasn't wanking while he was kil ing her, Tom, he was weeping.'
    1983
    Nicklin walked back towards the railway line, his right hand hanging awkwardly, cradling his clammy treasure. In his other hand was the last of a melting chocolate bar. He pushed what was left of it into his mouth, threw the wrapper onto the floor and turned around. He was twenty feet or so away, ready for his run-up, but Palmer had put the bat down.
    Nicklin's face reddened. He had a good mind to strol back and start smacking Palmer over the head with it, but he stayed calm. 'Come on Mart, pick the bat up. This is going to be bril iant.'
    The bigger boy shook his head, squinting at Nicklin and raising a
    hand to shield his eyes from the sun. 'I don't want to.'
    'Why not?'
    'I just don't want to.' They stared at each other for a while. 'Why
    can't I bowl? You're much better at batting than me...'
    'You can bowl next time.'
    Palmer looked vaguely sick. 'Are we going to do it again? But how... ?'
    Nicklin laughed. 'There's loads of them round here. Now stop pissing around, Martin. Pick the bat up.'
    Palmer said nothing, thinking about the two more weeks until they went back to school.
    The rails began to hum; there was a train coming. They watched as it rumbled past, a knackered old engine pul ing a couple of rusty hoppers. Within thirty seconds, the only sound was a distant sizzle and the chirrup of a grasshopper from somewhere close by.
    Palmer looked up. He saw the blue and pink splotches of cornflowers and foxgloves against the green of the embankment on the other side of the tracks. He saw mare's tails and periwinkles at Nicklin's
    feet. He saw Nicklin just staring at him, with the look that made his

    palms sweat and his head ache and his bladder start to fil .
    Stil , he didn't want to do this.
    It always came down to something like this. Nicklin would find him and they'd spend half an hour or so down by the railway line, chucking stones at bottles or talking about footbal , until Nicklin smiled that smile and the games would change. Then they'd be dumping turds through letterboxes, or lobbing eggs at buses, or... this.
    Palmer could hear a rustling in the long grass on the bank behind him. He wanted to turn around and see what it was, but he couldn't stop looking at Nicklin. Suddenly, Nicklin looked real y sad. On the verge of tears almost. Palmer shouted to him.
    'Look, it doesn't real y matter does it? We can do something else...' Nicklin nodded, tightening his fist, squeezing what was held inside. 'I know, course we can. I just