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112 pages

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Why did Hamish Elliott die? The professional cricketer's gruesome corpse is found in his own bed, with no signs of a struggle. But was it murder, suicide, accident or natural causes? Durham Police's Detective Sergeant Tony Milburn investigates.Who might have wanted Elliott dead? And why did the sleeping cricketer's penis burst?The investigation is fraught, as Milburn is forced to work with Diane Meredith, the sensual policewoman who stalked and harassed him nearly a year earlier. Will he fall for her wiles, again? The passage through a quagmire of suspects and potential motives is signposted by Milburn's enigmatic, surfer friend, Penfold, and a menagerie of bizarre characters.Witty and erudite, this murder mystery is a classic whodunit for the 21st Century. Sex, drugs and professional sport form the backdrop for a tale of human shortcomings when facing everyday temptations.

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Publié par	eBook Versions
Date de parution	17 avril 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781843962656
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0120€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

THE
CRICKETER S
CORPSE

Miles Hudson
Published in
the United Kingdom
by Miles Hudson

Copyright © 2013
Miles Hudson

Author s website
www.thecricketerscorpse.com

Miles Hudson has asserted his
right under the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988 to be
identified as the author of this work.

ISBN 978-1-84396-265-6

A CIP catalogue record
for this ebook is available
from the British Library.

ePub edition production
www.ebookversions.com

All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in or
introduced into a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form
or by any means electronic,
photomechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without
the prior written permission
of the publisher. Any person who
does any unauthorised act in
relation to this publication may be
liable to criminal prosecution.
Acknowledgements

Many thanks are due to:
Kirsten Crombie; Tato Debernadis; Alice Du Vivier;
eBook Versions; John Ellis; Liz Gray; Jonathan Hudson;
Dave Jones; Hannah Jones; and Andy McDaid.
Contents

Title Page
Copyright Credits
Acknowledgements

Friday 22nd March

Saturday 23rd March

Sunday 24th March

Monday 25th March

Tuesday 26th March

Wednesday 27th March

Thursday 28th March

Friday 29th March

Monday 1st April
Friday 22nd March

The man s penis appeared to have exploded. It was veryclearly the source of the incredible quantity of blood that covered the bed,and even now was dripping into a puddle on the polished floorboards byMilburn s black leather shoes. The six-foot ginger-haired corpse looked to besleeping peacefully, seemingly unaware that a small scarlet squid had replacedhis genitalia. The man was lean and wiry and suffered from an over-abundance ofcurly copper hair all over his body.
Detective Sergeant Tony Milburncarefully laid the bloody bed sheet down at the foot of the bed and looked overto his boss. Barnes had stepped back a few paces at the revelation of thebody s groin. The two crime scene examiners stood beside him, staring. This wasa particularly gruesome dead body.
Godolphin Barnes, Milburn sdetective inspector boss, was lanky. At six foot and three inches, he wouldalways have looked tall, but his narrow skinny body heightened his appearancefurther. His dark wavy hair was parted down the middle to form a ridge on topof his head, adding another inch or two. As a consequence of his frame, thenavy blue two-piece suit did not fit properly and hung loosely as if adorning acoat hanger. His mouth formed a short tight line across his pale face until hespoke. Let s go and talk to the friend and let the crime scene examiners geton with it, he said, adjusting the crotch of his trousers. He told theuniformed officer who had first attended the scene, You may as well leave.This definitely looks like one for CID.
They stepped into the short hallwaythat led further into the victim s flat. It was a well-appointed abode in a newblock about half a mile from Durham City s busy centre. The site had been alemonade factory until only ten years previously when the owner had decidedthat there would be more money and less hard work if they sold up to property developers.All the interior décor was bright and still looked very new. The hall opened uponto a large living area painted in cream with a sky blue carpet. Seated in themiddle of a white cotton three-seater sofa, Jim Harris looked distressed. Thedead man s friend had very short dark hair and the shocked paleness of his facehighlighted the brown of his eyes. The young man stared fixedly at the floorand appeared catatonic. His face was as white as DI Barnes'. Milburn musedthat, whilst Harris would be in a state of shock, the DI s undernourishedfigure and sickly pallor always gave off an air of impending illness, which wasprobably why little was made of his frequent sickness absences.
Barnes sat down in anadjacent and matching armchair. DS Milburn hovered just inside the room on thehallway threshold. Whew, Barnes exhaled deeply, looking for some responsefrom Jim. The brown eyes rose slowly to look at the policeman. I can t sayI ve seen anything like that before. The inspector s opening gambit ached foragreement, but the man said nothing. His eyes were wide and he would be in needof counselling after this morning s discovery. I m Detective Inspector Barnes,and this is Detective Sergeant Milburn. When did you find him? The DI moved onto a more straightforward interview style.
I came to pick up Hamishfor training. I got here about nine, I suppose. He didn t answer the door, so Ishouted and looked through the letterbox. It looks straight into his bedroom soI saw him. Harris s wide eyes widened further and he inhaled noisily throughhis nose. There was so much blood. I kicked the door open and... he stutteredslightly and drew another deep breath. I don t know much first aid, but Icould see he was dead already. So I called you lot.
Barnes had been making notesin his small book, and looked up to see if Mr Harris was going to add anything.The catatonic state appeared to have returned, so he prompted again, Did youtouch him? Or anything else in the bedroom?
No, Jim answered slowly,playing over in his mind what he might have done and what he actually did. Iwas so shocked I just stared for ages. And then I ran to the phone in here andcalled you. And then I just sat here. I haven t moved, even when the constablescame in. I don t want to go back in there. I don t want to do anything. Theman sounded close to tears.
Ok, said DI Barnes notingthese things down too.
I might have stood in theblood, I think. Will that matter? Harris looked up urgently into Godolphin sbeady grey eyes. He looked across to Milburn and then down to the floor again.All three men then looked at the trail of bloody footprints leading from thehallway to Harris in the middle of the sofa. The telephone was on a small tablejust inside the lounge, and the dance pattern of red feet, along with theseveral leading to his current position, were pretty strong testimony to thetruth of the young man s story.
Tony, one of the sceneexaminers almost wailed from the bedroom. Milburn retreated and met the man atthe bedroom doorway. In his left latex glove was a piece of Clingfilm balledup, and the right glove held a hypodermic syringe with a cover over the needle. These were in the bin, along with little else but used condoms and condomwrappers. The evidence gatherer lowered his voice to an almost inaudibly quietvolume. There s a puncture wound in the crook of the elbow.
Milburn nodded his vaguelygreying head. His temples had turned grey at least ten years previous to hiscurrent 34 years of age. He could never remember exactly when it had started,but younger than he would have liked. Fortunately, the remainder of his short,straight hair remained a woody brown colour. His girlfriend, Kathy, always saidit looked dignified, but this never reassured Milburn who considered that aeuphemism for ‘old . Thanks, he said and walked back to whisper the narcoticsevidence in his partner s ear. In doing so, he got a whiff of whatever it wasthat kept Barnes black hair looking so slicked and oily. It was not aparticularly unpleasant smell, just wrong for a person s hair. If he hadn tconsidered it ludicrous, Milburn would have reckoned it had hints of gearboxoil.
Was Hamish a drug user? Barnesimmediately sprang on Harris. The younger man was big and lithe and gave off anaura of reined in physical power. At this question he stiffened. He lookedjumpy and nervous, the presence of strength vanished.
No. Not that I know of. No.Nothing like that. There s no drugs in our team.
The two detectives exchangedconfused glances. I m sorry, Mr Harris, Barnes confirmed the name, trying tofeel his way through this odd new development. I don t quite get what youmean?
Jim looked up, his eyessquinting as if he had now been launched into unfamiliar territory himself.There was a slight head movement as if something he considered unlikely hadjust clicked into place in his mind. After looking at DS Milburn, he turnedback to the boss to reply, We re both players for Durham County Cricket Club.
Durham County ? Milburn interrupted, stressing the difference between the city club and theprofessional county team based five miles away in Chester-le-Street.
Yes, I m not too surprisedyou haven t heard of me, but Hamish has been first change bowler at DCCC forthe last two seasons.
Tony Milburn pointed up thehallway and interjected, That s Hamish Elliott, the cricketer? He had neverseen Elliott play but had read of his mean bowling figures in the newspaper.The Scot had never been a prolific wicket taker, but was so consistentlyaccurate that he could restrict opposition teams scoring to miserly, sometimespitifully low, rates.
Harris nodded slightly andjust said, Yes, in a dismal voice.
Milburn concurred by simply saying, Wow, in an equally dismal voice.
Looking over his distinctlybeak-shaped nose, DI Barnes asked for clarification about Jim Harris collectinghis friend Hamish Elliott for training. During the following carpoolexplanation, Milburn scoured his brain for memories of the county cricketclub s Jim Harris. He had heard of him: not a regular first team player, butmore often in the Sunday and Twenty20 Cup teams. He vaguely remembered readingthat he tired easily but was good for the shorter matches. Looking at theracehorse strong body on the sofa, Milburn thought it surprising that he hadless stamina than other players and, in particular, the much leaner man in thebed in the next room. Milburn made some notes of what he could remember readingof the two players, just in time to hear Barnes offend the man deeply.
So you and Hamish wereteammates. Were you also friends?
Oh yes, Harris soundedpositively jubilant at the fact.
More than friends?
Milburn stared in disbeliefat DI Barnes, but his disbelief was patently less than