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With careful attention, de Hogue looked about himself at the mud. There was already a mess of foot prints back and forth, and he searched in vain for any unfamiliar prints.
“She’s been dead for at least a day, I reckon” Bailey remarked. “What do you say to this wound?”
De Hogue turned his attention back to the girl and regarded the large open cavity. He had never seen such a wound on a human being before.
On the gun deck of a ship of the line, he had seen men mutilated, cut in half by splinters or cannonball, and once he had seen a Jamaican man, eaten by sharks in Kingston harbour but he had never before seen a human being with a wound such as this.
“She looks like she was eaten” he replied in a level voice.
Thatcher swore and Moss, who had taken a few timid steps closer, turned away and began walking back the way they had come.
Bailey stood up and shouted after him;
“Keep those people back!”
Moss waved his hand, but did not reply. He did not even look back.
Bailey turned to de Hogue and puckered his lips.
“Eaten?”
“Like a sheep that’s been had at by wolves.”
The short man nodded and looked down at the corpse.
“Yes…”


The news spread quickly through Welles and from there out to the rest of the island. Reverend Butler returning from the mainland found the entire island in an uproar of fear and anger and waiting for him in the front room was the short stubby magistrate’s man, Bailey.
“Father,” Bailey said softly. “Have you heard the news?”
Reverend Butler nodded, motioning his house keeper away with a quick flick of his eyes.
“Young miss Coleman has been slain?”
“Not just slain, father, but brutally murdered and partly dismembered.” Bailey answered in a quiet voice.
The priest’s eyes opened wide in shock, but he remained silent. Bailey continued in the same soft monotone.
“I’d like to ask you to accompany me out to her parents house. I don’t know the way, and I don’t the people, so I was hoping I could rely on your help?”
“Of course, of course.” Butler shook his head sadly. “What a tragedy. Do you know who is responsible?”
Bailey shook his head.
“I have no idea. As you know, I am only here to hunt down those who would take advantage of the war to make a profit by smuggling gold into the country”.
Reverend Butler nodded, watching the smaller man’s quick eyes reading him. Bailey was obviously an intelligent man.
Butler had never been this close to him before, and he had heard that Thomas Bailey was a hard cruel man with no mercy for those he caught. He had been prepared to dislike him, but now he saw something below the hard cold exterior that he recognised. Bailey was unmoved by the girls death in any emotive fashion. The nature of her death meant little to a man who had worked as a turn key in Newgate prison and Butler felt a slight shiver at the thought of the things Bailey must have seen in his time there. Such sins without any hope of redemption!
“I shall get my coat and hat at once.” He replied.Bailey nodded and sat back in his chair to wait.