The Cursed Town

[06]The body

Mentions: This chapter mentions violence and is gorier than the other chapters.

Jane and Y/N followed in their car - with the lights flashing — Fischer, who was following Detective Jones inside a police car. There was another police car parked a few yards away and Y/N guessed this must have been the policeman who reported to Jones.

They heard police sirens in the distance.

Jane and Y/N climbed out of their cars, and Fischer climbed out of her's. Detective Jones and the police officer climbed out of the police car. It was lucky the roads had been cleared again this morning, otherwise, that would have been an awfully dangerous ride.

"A guy was out walking his dog this morning." He began, Jane knew where this was going, the dog found something. She looked back at the town, they were less than 100 yards away from the nearest building but not quite on the outskirts of town.

Then something hit her, and Y/N noticed it too, "What's that smell?" Jane asked, she knew it was not the smell of a body but something else, she recognised it but couldn't think what it was.

"There's a manhole somewhere along this road and the sewer runs through it ." Commissioner Fischer explained.

Detective Jones led them towards a mound of snow, surrounded by some trees. Off to the left, it was all clear and Jane guessed that must be the road that led to the next town.

They trudged through the snow towards the snow mound, and Jones climbed over it, then others followed. It was crunchy under their feet which indicated that it was colder last night.

As they climbed over the mound, Jones stopped on the other side and he looked to the ground, The other's came next to him and looked at what he was seeing.

Jane squatted to get a closer look at what was partially buried under the snow, Fischer followed suite. Y/N looked away and he saw a police officer talking to a man who had his dog on a lead, The man looked like he was in his 60's-70's, and his dog sat by his feet. The officer was taking notes.

"Gloves, Detective?" Fischer asked, pulling a pair of latex gloves out of her pocket, offering them to Jane. But Jane already had some of her own and never worked a case without a pair of gloves in her pocket.

Fischer smiled as she slid on her gloves.

Y/N and Jones squatted next to them,

Jane, with her gloves on, pushed a lump of snow to one side to reveal what was underneath.

A human head in the snow. In the early stages of decomposition but it was recognisable that this body belonged to Liam or Alfle Harleson as she recognised the face from the photographs, but obviously a family member would have to come to confirm the identification.

She moved some more snow away from the body and noticed some marks on the victim's neck, "Looks like he was strangled." She said,

As she moved more snow away from the body, with the help of Fischer, they discovered that the body was intact and fully clothed.

Jane fished in the jacket pockets, then the inside pockets and she found what she was looking for, a wallet.

She opened it and read the name on the driver's licence, 'Alfie Harleson.' She said showing the licence to the others.

Jones looked around, "This whole area is covered in snow, where do we begin to look for Liam?"

The police sirens grew louder and louder, and finally, the police cars skidded to a stop next to the other cars and the officers immediately jumped out and began setting up police lines around the area.