After a few moments she calmed down. Only then did it occur to her that she could have made a stupid blunder. What she had spotted in the water might be the arm of a life-sized khaki-coloured hand, or perhaps a mannequin from a shop window. But she had summoned the police, and it was too late to change her mind. She had given them her name and address, besides which they would be able to trace her from her phone number. All she could do now was wait for the police to arrive and if it turned out she had made an embarrassing fuss over nothing, that was just too bad. There was nothing she could do about it now. The police could hardly arrest her for making a mistake.

At last, a pair of uniformed police appeared and almost immediately the dreary quiet towpath erupted into a scene of bustling commotion. Within minutes, access had been blocked off to prevent members of the public from approaching, while white-clad officers began busily examining the river bank. Mandy was escorted away for questioning by a young policewoman who looked very smart and stern in her uniform.

‘Is it a body?’ Mandy enquired, although the teeming police presence had already confirmed her suspicion.

‘I’m afraid so.’

‘How did she die?’

‘She?’ the young policewoman repeated. ‘How do you know the deceased person is a woman?’

Mandy shook her head, struck by a horrible thought. If the police thought she knew too much, they might suspect she was somehow involved in the death.

‘I didn’t – I don’t –’ she stammered. ‘I just thought – it didn’t look like something a man would wear. That bright blue, I mean.’

Miraculously, someone brought her a cup of tea and wrapped a silver sheet around her shoulders. Although she had not been aware of feeling cold, she realised that she was shivering and was grateful for their care. She sipped the hot tea and tried to control her shaking.

‘I walk along here every morning, at about the same time,’ she explained, when the policewoman asked her if she was ready to give a statement. ‘It’s important to get some daily exercise, and it’s so lovely along here, watching the changing seasons. It’s a really nice place to walk, well, most of the time. Anyway, this morning I was walking along, like I do every day, and I just happened to notice the blue jumper. I thought it was an unusual fish at first, or a bird, but when I looked, I saw there was a hand –’ she broke off with a shudder. ‘I realised it must be a dead body and called you straightaway. And that’s all I know.’ She hesitated. ‘Do you think she meant to drown herself, or did she fall in by accident?’

‘As yet we have no idea how the victim came to be in the river,’ the officer replied quietly.