But on first glance, it didn’t look to him as if the driver had sustained fatal injuries from the crash. Although the front of the car rested against the tree trunk, it didn’t look all that dented in, and he suspected the bank of snow at the side of the road had softened the actual impact. But perhaps it had been enough to jolt him forward, banging his head against the wheel? Enough to knock him out? Especially if he was already three sheets to the wind anyway? Clement gave a mental shrug. Most likely it would turn out to be the cold that had finished him off, poor soul.

With a grunt, Clement leaned even further forward, putting his nose close to – but not touching – the dead man’s lips. He sniffed and thought he detected just a faint whiff of alcohol. In the intense cold, he couldn’t be sure. Delicately, he reached out and lifted one of the man’s closed eyelids.

And for a long, long, moment, he regarded the large, darkly dilated pupils thoughtfully. Then he gave an almost imperceptible nod, closed the man’s eyes again respectfully and stood up. He again ignored the twinge in his back.

He put his glove back on, and carefully closed the door.

By the time he’d finished all this, Trudy and the other constable were watching and waiting for his verdict in silence.

‘I can confirm death,’ Clement said flatly, glancing out of habit at his watch.

Trudy too made a note of the time in her notebook, and nodded at him. ‘Constable Wilkins here was called out just after six-thirty this morning, by a man who’d been walking his dog and found the car.’

‘Beats me why anybody would be up at that hour on New Year’s Day, let alone walking a dog. And in this weather too!’ the constable muttered resentfully.

‘People are often creatures of habit,’ Clement commented mildly, looking at the scene. All around, white, hard-packed frozen snow, overlaid with a softer blanket of the snow that had fallen recently, made everything look uniform and ill-defined. Trudy, also looking at the scene, pointed to the obvious set of footprints leading to the car.

‘These the dog walker’s?’ she asked.

‘Uh-huh,’ Wilkins agreed. ‘He was waiting by the passenger door when I got here. When I cleared a path to the car myself, I made sure not to disturb them,’ he added smugly, clearly expecting praise. Receiving none, he sighed.

‘What are these, do you know?’ Trudy asked, hunkering down and looking at some slight indentations in the snow that also seemed to circumnavigate the stranded vehicle.

‘Dunno,’ Wilkins said, looking at where she was pointing.