The Missing Party-Girl: A Rags-to-Riches Cozy Mystery Romance by Nhys Glover (read after .txt) 📗

She clicked on the link and began reading The Lewes Gazette for 1988.

Mass Body Dump Discovered on Local Farm.

Monday 16th May. Horrified constructions workers early this morning made a grisly discovery of multiple graves in a local farmyard.

After years of abandonment Yewtree Farm had recently been sold to developers after the previous owner, Leonard Watkins, died intestate in 1980. The farm had been left to fall into disrepair until last year while legal wrangles ensued.

The new owners, Harding and Walsh Constructions, were in the process of gutting the house and barns as the first step towards converting the farm into a small, up-market residential complex. However, as bulldozers were clearing away the ground around the barns a gruesome discovery was made. Skeletons of at least three people were uncovered in shallow graves.

The police were immediately called in. By 10 am, the dump site had been declared a crime scene. Further excavations began shortly thereafterf to determine the extent of the crime.

 The exact number of bodies so far unearthed has yet to be released. The police detective in charge, DI Kevin Mills, was quick to allay fears of a mass murderer on the loose, by declaring the skeletons are not recent. Nor were they part of an ancient burial ground.

Speculation now centres on whether the bodies were buried at the derelict farm after Watkins death, or whether Watkins himself committed a series of brutal murders and buried his kills in his barnyard.

Adie’s heart was beating so hard in her chest it hurt. Frantically, she searched for more on the bodies at Yewtree Farm. She found them in the same paper dated a few days later.

Ten Female Skeletons Uncovered in Farmyard

Monday 23th May. The police have finally released more details concerning the grisly discoveries at Yewtree Farm, five miles outside the quiet township of Lewes.

Ten bodies, all females between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five, were discovered last week when bulldozers unearthed their shallow graves in the barnyard of a derelict farm slated for conversion into an up-market residential complex.

Preliminary tests have determined the skeletons were buried over a period of more than ten years, starting in the late 60s.

Leonard Watkins, who was 59 at the time of his death, had inherited the family farm in 1960, after both his parents were killed in a car accident.

Watkins was well known in the area, and locals were shocked and horrified by the gruesome discoveries. The possibility that their neighbour could have been a serial killer, operating right under their noses for all those years, has sent shock waves through the small community.

Locals were quick to explain how Yewtree Farm had been struggling since an outbreak of foot and mouth shortly after Watkin’s parents’ death. The beleaguered farmer had driven a local taxi part-time to keep the farm solvent.

George Utterly, Watkins closest neighbour, said, “Leonard had a hard time of it, what with his parents’ death and then losing all his stock like that. He was a good enough chap, all things considered. I never had reason to believe he was anything but a hard-working farmer trying to make a go of it in hard times.”

Watkins died of a heart attack in 1980 on his farm, leaving no will and no close relatives. Settlement of his estate was a protracted affair, which finally concluded late last year. The property was then purchased by Harding and Walsh Constructions for conversion into a high-end residential complex.

The identities of the women are as yet unknown. No local girls were reported missing over the period Watkins was presumed to be active.

Adie looked up from the screen, her heart racing even harder with this second story. A serial killer of women in Lewes. A serial killer who was a taxi driver in his spare time. Could he have killed Georgie when he picked her up from the station that night? But the paper said the bodies were from the late 60s and on. Georgie died in 1965.

But the possibility was too real to be ignored. What were a few years when it came to serial killers? There were always bodies that went undiscovered or didn’t fit the MO because he hadn’t developed his unique signature that early.

Excited—no thrilled!—Adie tore up the stairs to the second floor in search of Cage. It didn’t matter what time it was, or that Cage was asleep. She’d possibly cracked the case wide open. She might have at last stopped Winsley from getting hold of this million pounds!

Cage jerked upright the moment she threw open his door. The hall light illuminated his naked chest and rumpled bedding.

“What’s wrong?!” he demanded in a groggy voice, although by the tension in his body she knew he was already fully awake and ready to take action.

“Sorry, sorry. Nothing is wrong. I didn’t mean to worry you. It’s just that I’ve cracked it! I know who killed Georgie Wyatt!” she announced exuberantly.

She covered the few steps to the monstrous bed and threw herself into the man’s arms. In her excitement, she didn’t think of how inappropriate her behavior was. Or how Cage would take it. All she could think about was celebrating. She had solved the second mystery!

For a full minute she sat on Cage’s lap, hugging him tightly. After the initial shock, his arms had come around her, holding her just as tightly as she held him.

When reality finally dawned on her, Adie drew back, feeling the heat of a blush rushing up her neck and into her cheeks. What had she been thinking, accosting Cage in his bed? He’d quit now, she was certain. This had to qualify as sexual harassment, didn’t it? She was his employer and had come into his room without permission.