6Molly stood well back, watching as the forensics team did their work under the direction of Gilles Maron, acting chief of gendarmes in Castillac. The coroner, Florian Nagrand, stood with his hands folded on his big belly, looking around at the forest as though hoping to spot an interesting bird.
Molly walked over to him and asked, “Can’t you cut him down?” She had never seen a hanged person before in real life, and it was far more horrible than she had imagined. She tried to keep her eyes down but she couldn’t help it, she kept looking up at Ryan, dangling there, his limbs limp and his eyes unseeing.
“Soon, my dear,” he said, still looking up into the trees. “You know, I once saw a gray-headed woodpecker in a tree like that. Quite rare, you know. Far too early in the year now, though.”
