It is 1985 and the anemic, bloated body of a male is discovered encased inside a concrete column, part of a 25 year old highway bridge. It may never have been discovered, but for a chance traffic accident.
The victim is naked and found kneeling inside a cavity formed around the body when the fluid concrete was poured. Above the head, a piece of corrugated steel supports the concrete above and around it, a cage of steel reinforcing bars. Both hands are feet are bound behind the body.
A drainage pipe from the highway above runs inside the bridge column where it is broken inside the cavity, beside the croucking body. Copious amounts of water had periodically flooded the cavity, followed by spells of dry weather. The environment encourages the formation of of a little known type of mummification called Adipocere. Adi, meaning "fatty" and pocere meaning "waxy".
This natural form of preservation is the last thing that the murderer expects and the discovery of the body even less. Why? Because bridges ae designed to to be demolished and replaced after 120 yeas, long after the perpetrator is dead. An unlucky break for the murderer!
Adipocere preserves the body in remarkable condition until its discovery. Exposing it to the elements following the traffic collision causes the body to begin to corrupt and decay and the investigation team must work swiftly to identify the victim before the soft tissues turn to mush.
The only other clues, no doubt deemed to have been unimportant by the killer because the body was never meant to be found, were a distinctive tattoo of a 2nd World War ship and the knots used to tie and bound he victim.
Graves's father, a retired police sergeant, is attacked within days of the discovery of the body. He is oneof the team working on the case. The two incidents are thought to be unrelated.... but then Graves decides to investigate his father's near-fatal attack, finding out more than he bargained for.
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