Read Two Evils: A DI Charlotte Savage Novel for Free Online

out. I took the PC at his word and I only caught a glimpse before he whipped the lid back on. That’s where the ice cream came in. There was this kid up on the raft with a ninety-nine. The whole thing was about to fall off the cone and land on the body.’
    ‘Never mind,’ Riley said. ‘It’s one for the canteen. The lads at the station will be joking about this for months.’
    He looked down at the raft. The structure had been painstakingly constructed with dados and lap joints on the subframe, the pieces of plywood on the top had had the edges rounded over and the surface given a coat of wood stain. Somebody had spent time and money on building the thing.
    ‘It’s a lot of trouble to go to,’ Enders said, following Riley’s line of thinking. ‘Unless the raft is some sort of publicity stunt.’
    ‘Publicity?’
    ‘Yeah. A promo for a soft drink or a movie.’ Enders gestured at the structure beneath his feet. ‘You set this lot up and hope someone might film a video which will go viral and get hundreds of thousands of views. Isn’t that how it works?’
    Riley had no idea. Since Julie had moved in there hadn’t been much time for movies.
    ‘I’m right, sir.’ Enders had picked up the disembodied arm and was running a finger up and down one side. ‘There’s a message engraved here, look.’
    Enders held out the arm. Hundreds of little indentations peppered the surface and spelt out a sequence of letters:
    TB/PS/CH/BP

    ‘A game, I reckon. Xbox, PlayStation, that sort of thing. This is a code. Maybe it’s a set of keystrokes to a secret level or an Easter egg.’
    Riley looked down at the rest of the mannequin. Perhaps the raft had been constructed in a special-effects workshop. That could explain the high-quality joinery.
    ‘Where’s the press then?’ Riley said. ‘And why here, why not somewhere a bit more glamorous? Seems to me if this was a clever publicity stunt then the budget’s been wasted.’
    ‘Someone got their timing wrong. Couldn’t read a tide table.’ Enders dropped the arm back into the box with a clatter and patted Riley on the back. ‘You know, London types.’
    ‘Very funny, Patrick.’
    ‘They’ve probably chartered a big motorboat and are waiting out at sea with a bunch of journos and hampers full of hospitality food and plenty of booze.’
    ‘Well I hope they brought enough to last them a while because they’ll be waiting a long time.’
    ‘Are we going to impound the raft then?’
    ‘No, that’s not our job. We’ll leave it to the coastguard or the harbour master or whoever’s supposed to deal with this type of thing. Come on, Patrick, we’ve got better things to do with our time.’
    ‘Hang on, sir.’ Enders was peering down at the arm he’d just dropped. Something had fallen from the hollow interior. He bent and picked the item up. ‘More trickery?’
    Enders showed Riley a cylindrical aluminium tube around six inches long. A rubber bung had been pushed in at each end. Enders began to ease the bung from one end of the tube. The bung popped out and Enders tipped the tube slightly. A small piece of rolled parchment fell out and into the box, something wrapped inside.
    ‘What’s that?’ Riley moved closer. The parchment was stiff and translucent, a scrawl of ink on the uneven surface. ‘Unroll it, Patrick.’

    Enders reached for the roll and gently teased it open. Wrapped within was a small piece of something like china or white plastic.
    ‘God-bod Biblical stuff,’ Enders said, peering down at the writing. ‘Hellfire and damnation. Sinners will burn in the fires of hell sort of thing. Me being a good Catholic boy, I should recognise exactly where in the Bible this comes from, but I don’t.’
    ‘What’s the white thing?’ Riley asked.
    Enders picked up the object and let the parchment fall back into the box. ‘Looks like porcelain or some kind of fine china.’
    Riley stared at the parchment as the light material rocked back and forth in the