Scream, You Die by Michael Fowler Page A

feel a tinge of sorrow for the officer. Scarlett remembered the numerous times, during her uniform days, when she had been given the job of guarding a crime scene and knew what it felt like.
    Scarlett shot her a friendly smile and flicked her head back up the lane. “Your colleague said you were down here with the person who found the body?”
    The PC sprung the passenger door fully open, giving Scarlett a clear view inside. She got a glimpse of a man wearing a heavy-duty waterproof and khaki-coloured woollen hat. He swung out his legs and poked out his head. His clean-shaven face was drained of colour and displayed a stunned look.
    “I still can’t believe it. I never expected to find that this morning, I can tell you. It was a real shocker!” His accent was broad East London.
    Scarlett stepped toward the police car. The man started to haul himself out from the passenger seat. Raising her hand Scarlett brokered for him to remain, and he returned to his sitting position, though he left his legs planted outside the car as he faced her.
    Scarlett said, “Morning, I’m Detective Sergeant Macey. You are?”
    “Linane. Michael Linane.”
    “Do you want to tell me what happened Michael?”
    Pursing his lips he shook his head. “I’ll never forget this, you know. Until my dying day, I tell you. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”
    Scarlett was still unaware of the circumstances of how the body had been discovered, and though she knew it was somewhere inside the thicket behind her, and had been found close to this section of the Thames, that was the fullness of her knowledge. She remembered her cognitive training; she needed to lead this crucial witness with open questions. “I can see this has been a bit of a shock for you, so just tell me in your own time what happened.”
    He took a deep breath. “Well, I was on my usual walk this morning. Set off from home, like I normally do, round about quarter to seven. Came up the trail past Buccleuch Gardens.” He thumbed backwards indicating the wide expanse of fields. “Then I crossed over here and went into those woods.” He gestured beyond Scarlett. “You’ve seen what the weather’s like. It was thicker than this an hour and a bit ago and I was keeping my eye out for Jackie, who’d run off. I was wondering where she’d got to.”
    Scarlett arched her eyebrows. “Jackie?”
    The man dipped his head.
    Scarlett followed his line of sight and in the footwell of the car she saw a black and brown Jack Russell terrier looking up at her with wide-open brown eyes. She re-engaged with the man and gave him a nod of clarification.
    “I spotted her fussing round this tree on the banking. I thought she’d found a rabbit hole or something like that, and walked past her at first, but when she wouldn’t come when I called I went back to have a look at what she was fussing at. That’s when I saw this suitcase just below the banking. It was a big thing and I could see it had got itself wedged in the roots of the tree. I mean, you do see a few things floating in the river. Once found a couple of cats in a bin liner that some bugger had drowned.” He paused and shook his head before continuing. “But I’ve never seen a suitcase before. I thought it was a bit suspicious. Wondered if might be full of stolen goods, from a burglary or something like that, know what I mean?”
    Scarlett nodded.
    “Anyway, I decided to pull it out and take a look.” He took another deep breath. “If I’d have known what I was going to find I wouldn’t have done, I can tell you. Especially as it took me a fair while to lug it up. It weighed a ton.”
    Scarlett wanted him to move on. “But you managed to get it out?”
    “Yes, eventually. Dragged it up the banking. I could see it was in fairly good nick, to say it had been in the Thames. I also saw it wasn’t locked and so I opened it up.” He visibly shuddered. “There was all this plastic wrapping inside. I pulled a bit of it