Free The Girl in the Rug by K Leitch Page B

corner as far
back as it could go… something that was shining up white in her torch light,
against the dark that surrounded it.
    Carla swallowed hard, ‘Frank…over here…I think there’s
something…oh god,’ she finished on a whisper.
    Frank clambered his way over near to where Carla stood; and
shone his torch to where she was pointing…stuffed under an old desk right at
the back in a corner was a filthy old rug and protruding out from the bottom of
the rug, white, almost luminous in the beam of Carla’s torch, was a tiny foot.
    ‘Shit,’ was all that Frank said, before getting on his radio
and calling for assistances and forensics.
    She was such a tiny little thing…naked and curled up in a
tight little ball. Not much more than a baby…just beginning life. Carla felt
hot tears burning at the back of her eyes she blinked them away and focused on
the job in hand. There was silence in the filthy old lock up…there had been
ever since the rug had given up its dreadful contents, forensics got on with
their job quietly and respectfully, everyone was affected by the tiny body of
the girl in the rug.
    ‘She’s been here a couple of weeks at least,’ Dorothy said
quietly coming over to where Carla stood, ‘there’s already quite a bit of
maggot infestation which might make it hard to identify her.’
    ‘Well she’s a child, so someone must have noticed she’s
missing, even in this shit hole,’ Frank muttered grimly, ‘any idea how she died?’
    Dorothy shook her head, ‘Well there’s a nasty injury to the
side of her head, and there appears to be some sign of bruising around her
neck, although it’s difficult to tell because of the extent of the
deterioration…but that could point to strangulation,’ she paused and turned to
Carla, ‘from first impressions and without moving her I would say that there
has been some sort of anal penetration though, definite outward signs of
tearing, not a lot of blood though, so could be post mortem…obviously I can’t
be certain until I’ve done the PM…’
    ‘For fucks sake,’ said Frank in disgust, ‘she doesn’t look
older than about three or four…fucks sake.’
    Carla just nodded grimly, and moved outside the lock up.
    Once outside she took a few deep breaths of cool air and
tried to pull herself together. This was her first experience of child murder;
she handled a few child abductions before but thankfully the children had all
been found safe and, if not well, at least alive. Looking down at the remains
of that little girl, it had taken all her strength not to break down and sob at
the cruelty and depravity of it all.
    No time for all that sentimentality though, she had a job to
do.
    ‘Frank, doesn’t she seem familiar to you…’ Carla asked as
Frank joined her outside, ‘I’m sure I know who she is I just can’t quite put a
name to her.’
    Frank shook his head, ‘No sorry…I don’t know her and to be
honest I don’t think I’d be able to recognise her even if I did.’
    ‘Right,’ went on Carla after thinking for a moment, ‘we need
to start trawling missing persons, and we need to get hold of social services,
see who’s on their at risk files. Can you get Sam and Midge knocking on doors
round here, anybody noticed anything, someone hanging round these garages
maybe, or a child that’s usually around, not around anymore?’
    Frank wandered off to speak to Sam and Midge; Carla got on
her radio and spoke to DC Mandy Hopkins who was surprised to be called so early
and was obviously still only half awake.
    ‘Mandy I need you to find out who made the calls about the
smell in the garage block, see if they know who actually owns the garage. Also
can you access any of the CCTV cameras within a hundred yard radius of the lock
up…yes its near Haversham Drive, round the back of Chatsworth House…yeh
‘Buttercup’…thanks love…oh pretty grim…yeh dreadful actually, right I’ll see
you when I get in…and get a strong coffee ok I need