Ellie nodded. Maybe the girl, at least, wasn’t as thick as she’d thought. Wakeman Farm was close by on Spear Bank, which ran from the bottom of the hill road across Thursdale to the Edge. Even that wasn’t without risk in these conditions, but it wasn’t as dangerous as a longer hike. “You tell your folks where you were going?”

Kate shrugged.

“You need to,” Ellie said. “Main roads are gonna be cut off for the next couple of days, and there’s more snow coming. You get caught out in it and get in trouble, right now there’s exactly two coppers in the area.” Or one, if she included Tom Graham.

The girl’s story was simple enough. They’d stopped for a short rest, as the hill road was pretty steep; before setting off again, the boy had gone to the road’s edge to study the view, and seen something lying in the snow.

“Took me a few seconds to realise what it was,” said the boy, wiping his eyes again and giving Ellie a shy smile. “Sorry about that. Gave me a bit of a shock – never seen anyone dead before.”

Town lad – a bit soft, maybe, but polite. Well-mannered. The kind you’d bring home to meet your parents.

“Happens sometimes round here,” said Ellie at last. “You get used to it. What happened then?”

“Managed to get a signal,” Kate said. “So we called it in.”

“Lucky again,” said Ellie. “Reception’s a nightmare round here, specially when it’s like this.”

She had no idea what else to say, so she looked out through the windscreen. To her relief, an olive-green BMW X5 came round the hill road’s bend and drove down towards them. Barsall Village had two full-time officers and one official vehicle, so at times like this Tom Graham’s own 4X4 – a seven-seater SUV, no less, a proper Chelsea tractor – was pressed into service; a blue police light had been hurriedly mounted on the roof, but, as usual, he’d forgotten to switch it on.

The BMW halted beside Ellie’s, and Tom got out. “All right, Ell. What have we got?”

Ellie trudged over and pointed. “Body, Sarge.”

“Oh, yes.” He scratched the back of his neck. “You did say.”

He looked lost – as usual – so Ellie, once again, stepped in. “The young lady and gentleman over there found him. I thought if you took them back to the station and got their statements, Dr Emmanuel and I can retrieve the body.”

“Oh. Yeah. Makes sense.” Tom gave the kids an amiable if vacant smile, then frowned at Ellie, or more accurately the fur hat. “For God’s sake, will you stop wearing that bloody thing on duty?”

“It keeps my head warm and the regulation cap doesn’t. I like having ears.”