The Schoolgirl Murder Case [antikvár]

OneSaltfleet woke up in the middle of the night and thought about the dead girl. That was a mistakeit made it impossible to sleep. He lay there in the moonlit room, listening to his wife's quiet, regular breathing; the moonlight fell on her forearm, raised above her head, and on the silky material of her nightgown. Miranda was forty-five; in the half-light, she looked twenty. He thought: older than that poor girl, even so.The Scene of Crimes Officer had covered the body with a blanket before he arrived. She lay at the side of the drive, half-concealed by Rhododendron bushes. Tall elm trees explained why she had not been seen earlier from the houses on either side. He could see, from the shape under the blanket, that one knee was raised, the other leg flung out, the position typical of rape. A shoe lay about five feet from the body. He stood there for several seconds, looking carefully around, before dropping on to one knee, and carefully removing the blanket.She had been strangled, and alsoprobablystruck a blow on the temple. A length of electric flex was deeply embedded in the flesh of the neck; a piece of white cloth protruded from the open mouth. Her face looked swollen and blotchy. She had an underdeveloped figure, with small, flat breasts. The black stockings were held up by broad elastic bands. The open legs looked obscene, like a drawing in a public lavatory.He had seen many bodies, but they never ceased to produce shock. It seemed a kind of insult that they should look so useless, so discarded.Detective-Sergeant Crisp stood waiting, his notebook open. Saltfleet began to dictate:I