Until that moment Jake had put the monumental volume of paperwork attached to an accidental death—let alone a potential homicide—out of his mind. Bugger.

‘FSST?’ Kelly asked.

‘They can’t send anyone till Monday. By which time anything in the vineyard will have washed away.’

‘I don’t suppose you have any experience with forensics?’

‘Not particularly. Just the basics.’

‘Is there an obvious cause of death?

Jake shook his head.

‘Signs of a struggle near the body?’

‘Not that I could see, but I took soil and leaf matter samples from the surrounding area to confirm. I’d say she was attacked elsewhere and carried into the vineyard.’

‘Murphy said there was damage to her hands?’

‘Yes. We’ll have to wait until they’re cleaned to see what might have caused it.’

‘Is there any chance she walked herself in and somehow died of natural causes?’

‘The large footprints we found in the vineyard would argue against that, but we can’t rule it out completely just yet.’

‘Then that’s the first thing we need to ascertain—exactly what are we dealing with?’

‘Right.’

‘You and Murphy head to the hospital ASAP. That pathologist tends to work slowly, so let’s push her for some results. And let’s hope it’s some kind of unusual death by misadventure. If not, we need to get on top of this now before it hits the media. Let’s do everything by the book, eh?’

That was a touch insulting—Jake was a consummate professional. But, he reminded himself, Kelly wasn’t to know that.

‘I’ll secure both locations, see if I can locate the vehicle and— depending on what the pathologist says—see if I can push along some resources from FSST,’ Kelly said with an unexpected lopsided grin. ‘Didn’t expect a possible homicide your first week in the country, I bet?’

Jake began to walk down the rutted driveway to his car. ‘No, sir.’

‘And Hunter?’

‘Sir?’

‘Pass all the paperwork on to Murphy. He’s got to learn it sometime. Just make sure it’s decent before he submits it.’

An unexpected offer. Jake smiled a little for the first time in days. ‘Certainly.’

*

Twisting along a muddied gravel road into the embrace of the mountains, Jake stared out the side window of Murphy’s patrol vehicle at the ragged, peeling trunks of sun-starved blue gums.

‘So, you worked many murder cases?’ the constable asked.

‘Before my last post, maybe eighteen or twenty. But we don’t know for certain that this is murder.’

Around a tight corner a clump of fern trees and dark bracken appeared beneath a rainforest canopy, quickly lost as Murphy accelerated out of the bend. The view reverted to mournful gums.

‘Come on. Someone did that to her. I’ve never seen anything like her hands before. You?’

‘Not like that, no.’

‘Well, she didn’t have a partner, so the most likely suspect would be the brother?’

‘He seems to have an alibi.’

This was Jake’s first opportunity to study the detail of some of his new surroundings. He had arrived late the previous Saturday night and been picked up from the airport by Murphy. Between exhaustion and the fog, Jake had barely been able to see the road, let alone what lay beyond the verge. Murphy’s incessant questions hadn’t helped then either.