Bear nodded as if he understood and then cocked his head to one side, his compressions faltering. “I can hear someone shouting,” he said. “Should I go and fetch them?”

“Yes, go. I’ve got this.” She readied her hands again, swapping roles smoothly as he scrambled to his feet.

“Won’t be long, miss.”

He quickly vanished from sight, swallowed up by the fog swirling off the lake. The metronome continued to tick, its measured beat a stark contrast to the frantic pounding of her pulse. Thirty to two, thirty to two, over and over, even though she knew it was hopeless, that it had already been too long and nothing she could do for the lad would fix him. Thirty to two. Thirty to two. Biting down on her lip, she bowed her head and persevered.

* * *

The snap and crunch of twigs sounded like firecrackers, sharp little explosions approaching at speed. Already twitchy after her half-mile trek through the woods with Grizzly Adams’s less kempt brother for an escort, Rosie stopped dead and saw Kash reach for his Taser.

“The fuck?” he whispered. “Can you hear that?”

“Of course I can. You watch too many bloody horror films,” she said, but then put her hand on her own Taser as she saw a large bearded man sprinting toward them. He stopped a couple of metres in front of them, his feet skidding in the wet leaves.

“This way,” he said. “Come on, come on. Mickey, you go back to the road and wait for the rest of ’em.”

Spurred by his urgency, they followed their new guide without question, hurdling fallen trees and splashing through boggy patches of grass. Mist rose and fell as they ran, and from a distance Rosie spotted a small, huddled figure, arms outstretched and tight as bowstrings as they pressed down repeatedly on a body.

“Shit. We’ll need Major Crimes and SOCO here ASAP,” she said. They hadn’t been told much about the job, just that it was an injured male in the woods, with a medic requesting assistance. There had been no further updates en route, so no one had warned them about blundering into a possible crime scene.

Kash keyed his radio mike, leaving her to go ahead of him as he relayed the information and made the necessary requests. She closed the remaining distance with more care, panning her torch across the ground to ensure she didn’t stomp on potential evidence. Engrossed in the resuscitation effort, the paramedic didn’t react to Rosie’s approach until the torch beam hit her. Then she looked up, shielding her eyes with one hand as she searched for the light’s source.

Rosie swore quietly, almost flinging her torch into the river in her haste to avert its glare.

“Jesus. Jem?”