The people around me were muttering, pulling out their phones, taking photos and videos. But no one seemed distressed. There were no consoling arms or mouths covered with one hand in dainty shock. Everyone appeared to be doing what I was doing: looking at the body out of intellectual curiosity. Maybe it was because he was frozen, and so felt more like part of the mountain than an actual person who had been breathing twelve hours ago. The scene was curious, but not violent. But surely someone would be screaming, trying to push past us up the hill to get to their loved one. Does no one know him? I wondered.

‘Is anyone a doctor?’ The policeman had given up trying to disperse the crowd. He repeated himself as he peered into the mob, revealing his observational skills to be at the low end of the scale between Blindfolded and Sherlockian. It was an exclusive alpine resort in peak season – half these bloody people were doctors.

I spied Sofia, opposite me in the semicircle, raising her hand.

Katherine leaned over to Andy and whispered something in his ear, shook her head.

The policeman beckoned Sofia over to him, and then led her in a wide berth around the tracks. At first they stood a few metres from the body, with Sofia gesturing down at the man, and then the policeman nodded and she knelt beside him. She cradled his neck in her hands and tilted it one way, then another. Peeled his lips apart. Unzipped the jacket and placed her hands underneath it. She waved the officer down and he knelt beside her, hesitantly letting her guide his hands over the body in the same way. When Sofia was happy she’d shown the officer enough, she zipped up the jacket and stood. They had a short conversation that was whipped up and into the sky by a blast of wind. I saw a brooding grey cloud pushing over the ridge.

‘Ernie, Andy,’ Sofia called. She was scooping her arms through the air. Get up here. I looked at the policeman for approval, and he mimicked her. Andy and I gave the existing trails a wide berth, but the prints up the hill were getting more and more crowded nonetheless. Outside of the huddle of spectators, I could tell the wind was picking up. My cheeks stung. I couldn’t bring myself to look down when we arrived; I focused instead on Sofia, but she was lost in thought, gazing at the corpse.

‘We need to move the body,’ the policeman yelled above the howl of the wind. ‘Get it out of view. I saw a garage on the way in. It will be cold enough for now.’

Andy and I both nodded. The policeman pointed across the slope.

‘We need to go up’—Sofia waved her arms in an exaggerated circle—‘and around! To preserve the scene!’