Evanly Bodies - By Rhys Bowen Page 0,8

tea and doing the crossword all day either."

"Sounds all right to me," a voice muttered.

"A roster of the first teams to be selected will be placed on the notice board after the meeting. Now if you'll-"

He broke off as the door to the room opened and a young female dispatcher came in, looking distinctly embarrassed as the attention of all the senior officers was suddenly on her. "Excuse me, sir, but we've just had a call from Bangor. They are reporting a homicide. The Bangor duty officer says he needs their detectives back on the job right away."

Chief Constable Mathry clapped his hands together delightedly. "Our first test, men. Superintendent Morris, whom have we assigned to the first response team?"

The superintendent glanced down at the sheaf of papers he was carrying. "We had DI Bragg from Central, DS Wingate from Eastern, DC Pritchard from Central, and DC Evans from Western. Let's have you four lads up here right away for briefing."

The Chief Constable was still beaming. "I realize this will be a baptism of fire, men, throwing you together like this before you've had time to get to know each other; but I have great confidence in your abilities, and I know you'll be a credit to the force."

It took Evan a moment to stand up.

"Good luck, Evan." Glynis gave him an encouraging smile.

Watkins leaned close to him and grabbed his wrist as he began to make his way to the front of the room. "Watch out for Bragg. Word is that he's a right bugger to work for. Likes all the credit for himself."

Evan nodded. He gave Watkins and Glynis Davies what he hoped was a confident grin as he moved forward to join the other men.

Chapter 4

The house was a big Victorian, set back from the road amid spacious lawns. The garden sloped downhill, giving glimpses of a view over the Menai Strait and the Isle of Anglesey. The water in the strait sparkled in morning sunlight as a small fishing boat chugged out toward the Atlantic. It looked most peaceful and inviting. Evan had always been shaken by the contrast between a violent crime and life going on peacefully around it. He noticed that late roses were still in bloom along the driveway as they walked up to the house. The garden was immaculate, obviously tended with a loving hand.

As they approached the front door, a uniformed sergeant came out to meet them.

"What's this then?" he asked, looking at them suspiciously. "Where's our lads? Where's DI Lewis?"

"There's been a reorganization at headquarters," Inspector Bragg said, in what sounded like confrontational tones. "And you are?"

"Presley, sir. But Ifan, not Elvis, even though I've got the looks for it."

The other men grinned, but no muscle moved on DI Bragg's face. During the high-speed ride from headquarters, which had taken place in almost complete silence, Evan had already decided that he wasn't at all happy with this assignment. If someone thought they were giving him a bump up the career ladder, he wasn't especially grateful. He rather suspected that DCI Hughes, his former boss, had had a hand in it. Hughes had not appreciated being outsmarted by Evan on a couple of occasions. Evan suspected that this new DI would like his toes being trodden on even less.

Bragg was built like an ex-Royal Marine: lean, middle aged, close-cropped grizzled air, a body that looked as if it was chiseled from rock. He wasn't particularly tall, however, probably no more than five foot ten. He stepped forward until he was standing eyeball-to-eyeball with Sergeant Presley. "I'm DI Bragg, in charge of the Major Incident Team that will be handling this case from now on. Your men should report any findings to me and only to me. I want an interview room made available at your station immediately, and I want the report from those men who handled the first response right away."

"Right you are, sir," the sergeant said. Evan thought he put a little too much emphasis on the word "sir." The sergeant looked around the group, and his face lit up when he spotted Evan. "Hello, Evans. I'm glad to see you're here, at least."

"DC Evans is the junior member of this team," Bragg said. "His role will be confined to taking notes and running errands for the senior officers. Now what exactly do we have here?"

"He was found lying sprawled across the breakfast table, apparently shot."

"Who was?" Bragg snapped.

"The man's name is Rogers, Professor Martin Rogers. He's head of