‘Yes please, that would be good.’ Tom turned his attention back to the dead woman.

Jumbo was right. There was something wrong here, something that didn’t tally.

CHAPTER 6

6

Becky had been glad to make her escape from the hide, ashamed to admit that the sight of the body in the confined space had made her constantly queasy tummy turn over. Although she was sure she wasn’t feeling anywhere near as bad as the poor man she could see just beyond the perimeter of the crime scene, sitting on a log that had been dusted clear of snow.

She made a quick call, relieved to hear that the pathologist would be with them soon, and inched her way gingerly along the icy path towards the man.

‘Mr Denshaw?’

The man looked up, nodded and started to push himself to his feet. He seemed to be in his early sixties, with a wiry body and a full head of grey hair – which more or less matched the colour of his cheeks.

‘Sorry,’ he said, pointing at the log as if he shouldn’t have been sitting down. ‘It was a bit of a shock. I thought she was just having a rest, you see. I hunkered down and spoke to her quietly, not wanting to frighten her. She looks such a little thing – in the gloom I thought at first that she was a child.’

Becky nodded at the log. ‘Sit down again, Mr Denshaw. I’ll join you.’ She lowered herself gingerly onto the smooth surface of the wood.

Knowing that the local police would already have asked him some questions and noted his responses, Becky decided to let him talk without prompting.

‘I come here all the time,’ he said. ‘You can often see kingfishers from this hide, and I worry about them when it’s as cold as this. They’re vulnerable in hard winters, so as soon as I thought I might be able to make it through the snow I came to see how they were getting on.’

‘When did you last come to check on them?’ she asked.

‘More than a week ago.’ He pulled the satchel looped across his chest to rest on his lap and rummaged inside it, finally pulling out a small notebook. Opening it, he ran his finger down the page. ‘It was ten days ago. I don’t normally leave it that long, but with the weather and everything…’

His voice trailed off, and Becky got the impression he felt guilty about not visiting as often as he should. She could see something that looked like tinfoil in his satchel. ‘If that’s a sandwich you have in there, you might want to eat it,’ she said. ‘Might make you feel a bit better.’

Mr Denshaw looked at her and pulled one corner of his mouth down. ‘Not sure I could eat right now,’ he said.