But her companions were more voluble. ‘She ran away from someone over there, then, did she?’ said Goodbody, indicating the business park. ‘Then over these fields to the woods up there?’

‘I suppose so,’ said Thea. ‘But there’s no way to be sure.’

‘Not much cover,’ observed Tompkins. ‘They’d be able to see where she went.’

‘They could have left her alone in the car,’ Thea suggested diffidently. ‘If there really was a car, that is. I can’t be sure that anything she said was true.’

‘Why? Did she come across as a liar?’

‘Not exactly …’ Thea tailed off, uneasy at speaking ill of a murder victim who could no longer defend herself. ‘Some of what she said sounded a bit … rehearsed.’

‘Hm,’ said Tompkins. ‘According to the file, she told you she’d hurt her shoulder. Is that right?’

‘She said it was dislocated. That was more or less the very first thing she did say, actually. But after a few minutes I came to the conclusion it wasn’t as bad as that. Just wrenched, I think.’

They got to the immense stile in a few more minutes, 125and stood staring up at it. ‘Wow!’ said Goodbody.

They slowly climbed over it, Thea first, then Tompkins. Goodbody stood back to watch, observing that anybody in a frantic hurry could trip and fall from the top. For a small person like Grace it would be quite a tumble. ‘If she landed on her shoulder, she might well hurt it enough to think it dislocated,’ he mused.

With elaborate care, Thea demonstrated how exactly she had found the fugitive, and what happened next. ‘It was just here,’ she told the officers. ‘She said she’d been hiding under all that bracken and stuff, for a long time. Hours. You can see it would be quite easy to stay out of sight – and it doesn’t look as if people ever come along here, anyway.’

‘Better have a proper look,’ said Goodbody, and started to push his way into the point indicated. Almost immediately, he was forced onto hands and knees. ‘Did you do this?’ he asked Thea, over his shoulder.

‘Definitely not. She came out almost before I was down from the stile. Can you see anything?’

‘It’s a bit flattened. Er … a couple of threads caught on a thorn. Hey, T, come and take some pics, will you?’

DS Tompkins activated her camera and approached in a crouching posture. Thea stepped back, content to leave them to their forensic investigating. It was both like and unlike scenes from TV dramas. No white paper suits, but an impressively thorough search for all that. Small plastic bags were filled with minute threads and hairs. Pictures were taken of indentations on the ground. It took at least ten minutes.126

‘Well, that seems to confirm what you’ve told us,’ said Goodbody, finally crawling out and standing up again. ‘Where to now?’

Thea explained the route she and Grace had taken back to the house, and awaited a decision as to whether it was necessary to follow in their footsteps. ‘She was obviously terrified of being seen,’ she told them. ‘The walk must have seemed endless to her.’