“Gimme a flashlight.” Ellie handed one over and Milly shone it over the corpse. “Look at his posture. One leg’s out straight. The other’s pulled up at the knee. See? And his back’s straight too.”

“And?” Then Ellie saw. “He was sitting up?”

“Yeah. He died somewhere else, rigor set in, and then he fell.”

“Or someone brought him out here and dumped him.” Ellie groaned. “Why couldn’t the snow have fucking buried him? Then I wouldn’t have to deal with this bollocks until it was warm.”

“If it wasn’t him, it’d be someone else,” said Milly. “You know what it’s like. Every sodding year, like clockwork.” She sighed. “People never seem to learn.”

“I know. I know.”

Neither spoke for a few seconds. Snow drifted down and settled on the body.

“Why dump him here, though?” Milly said. “Not exactly the perfect spot.”

Ellie shone the other flashlight along the slide mark. Then she frowned and followed it back to the footpath before moving the beam up the slope above. “Milly? Think I might’ve found the answer.”

Milly floundered back up to her side, catching her arm for balance. “What you got?”

Ellie played the flashlight beam over the dead vegetation on the slope above the path. Snow had clogged it since last night, but they could both see that a section of it was badly crushed.

“He fell from above?”

“I reckon. Maybe somebody slung him from the road?”

“Maybe.” Milly sounded doubtful. “What’s that, though? See? There?”

She pointed. Ellie moved the beam further up the slope. The snow hadn’t covered it as extensively as the lower section, so she couldn’t see any slide marks, but there was a ledge about ten feet below the road barrier. It was twelve feet across, and looked as though someone had chiselled a neat oblong out of the rock.

“Remember his posture?” Milly said. “Back straight, one leg out, one drawn up...”

“Like he was sitting down,” said Ellie. “How wide’s that ledge look? Couple of feet?”

“If that.”

“So you pull a leg up to brace yourself, make sure you don’t topple off. But what was he doing there to start with?”

Milly didn’t have an answer. The cold was creeping in, along with the awareness of what lay ahead, and Ellie didn’t like either. She’d have to visit the Harpers, which wasn’t her idea of fun at the best of times. And it mightn’t be just the standard death knock either. “All right. Let’s get some pictures of the scene then get back.”

Milly nodded down at the body. “What about him?”

“I’ll have a word with Plant-Pot at the Co-op. See if he’s got any room in the meat freezer.”

Milly grimaced. “That’s turned me veggie for the duration. Hey! Where you going?”