Witchmoor Edge Read online

  * * *

  It was, as both Joe Davis and Millicent Hampshire had observed, though in rather different circumstances, a nice day for a dive. Two constables with appropriate training from the Leeds Police HQ were wondering how they could spend a lovely day on duty when the request for a diver came in. Now they were both quite enjoying the work in the canal.

  The fire brigade had gone, to be replaced by Detective Sergeant Gibbs and a couple of uniformed officers in shirt sleeves, relaxing in the sunshine. There were tapes across the towpath, blocking off the work area, but that hadn't prevented several onlookers from gathering and two more boats had joined the Lucky Lady. There was another barge with a smart looking young man, a girl in shorts and tea shirt and an older woman. There was also a small motorboat piloted by a scruffy looking teenager and an old man. Joe Davis still leaned against the bank and smoked.

  The divers weren't looking for anything in particular and DS. Gibbs was just fishing so to speak. Then one of the men broke surface, dragging something behind him. He swam to the bank and took the breathing tube mouthpiece from his mouth.

  "You'll be interested in this," he called up to Gibbs, who came across to investigate.

  "What?" Gibbs asked.

  "Another body," the diver said.

  Gibbs called over the two uniformed men. "Give him a hand," he ordered.

  The second diver surfaced and swam over. Together the 4 of them heaved the dripping body out of the water. The corpse dragged up and laid on the towpath was that of an older teenager.

  "It is interesting," Gibbs remarked to Davis. "I wonder what the connection is between the two bodies."

  It was a rhetorical question and Joe didn't answer it, at least not directly.

  "And what the connection is between t' fire and t' bodies," Joe said.

  "That too," Gibbs agreed.