‘Oh, this one can be left as a surprise I think,’ Gordy said. ‘Right then, here we are!’
The DI pulled the car over onto the right-hand side of the road and into the yard of a small farm. Compared with the one they’d been at yesterday, it was the polar opposite, Harry thought. The house looked cared for and even had some pretty little window boxes alive with colour. Not that Harry was into things like that, but he had to admit that it all looked rather picturesque. The farmyard and its buildings, which Harry noticed bridged both sides of the road, were all in good order. He could see other farm buildings set back behind the house as well. This was a place loved and cared for, he thought. So just what the hell had happened to bring them out here in the early morning?
‘Come on, then,’ Gordy said, opening the driver’s door. ‘Let’s get out and see what’s what, shall we?’
Outside the car, Harry was hit by the cool wind gusting down the road to bite at him gleefully. Around them stretched moorland and little else and Harry wondered what it took to not only live out here but work here, too. It was beautiful, yes, but lonely as well, with nothing for miles. Harry heard the low moan of cows coming from the buildings round the back of the farmhouse.
‘You finished sightseeing?’ Gordy called.
Harry hunched up inside his coat then made his way around the front of the car to stand with Gordy.
‘I thought it was just sheep around here,’ Harry said.
‘They’ve a small herd of animals that they feed up and sell for beef,’ Gordy explained. ‘They’re in the barn at the back and will be put out on pasture later.’
‘So where’s the body?’ Harry asked.
Gordy nodded to the barns at the back of the house. ‘Jim’s already got the tape out, Matt’s inside with the family, the poor beggars, and the rest of the party is on its way. Twice in two days, as well. Imagine how happy everyone’s going to be about that!’
‘What about Jenny and Liz?’
‘Jenny got a call in to a domestic down in Aysgarth. Liz is with her.’
‘Aysgarth?’
‘Famous waterfalls,’ Gordy said. ‘Kevin Costner was all Hollywood in them when they filmed Prince of Thieves.’
As they walked past the house to where Gordy had directed, Harry spotted some children’s toys in the garden by the house. It was just a little wooden swing and a tricycle, but the sight of them had Harry immediately thinking the worst.
‘It’s not one of the bairns if that’s what you’re thinking,’ Gordy said, clearly catching what Harry was thinking. ‘I’d have given you fair warning of that, I can assure you.’
A bit further on was when the smell crept up Harry’s nose. It was the kind of smell he’d heard people describe as the smell of the countryside, a healthy smell even, but to him, it was just cow shit, and he wasn’t a fan.
The source of the smell was also the thing surrounded by Jim’s cordoning tape. It was a concrete pit, sunk into the hill behind, the base of it sloping steeply downwards to disappear into a steaming, slick mass of brown slurry. Just a way off to its left side was the open-sided barn with the cattle. At the sight of Harry the animals ran to the back of the barn.
Harry saw Jim and gave him a half-hearted salute, touching the side of his forehead with his left hand.
‘I know I’m going to regret asking this,’ Harry said, ‘but what are we dealing with here? What happened? And how is it possible to collect that much cow shit from so few animals?’
Jim came over.
‘I’ll let him explain,’ Gordy said, nodding at the PCSO.
‘About the shit or the body?’ Jim asked.
‘I think you can do both, if that’s okay with you?’
Harry, with another look at the slurry pit, wasn’t so sure that he wanted him to.
‘The slurry collects over winter,’ Jim said. ‘The animals are kept inside during the colder weather and the muck is cleaned out regularly. Keeps them clean and healthy, and you’ve then got some excellent stuff to throw on your land. Good fertiliser.’
‘So why are they in the barn right now?’ Harry asked.
‘It’s been a wee bit hot,’ Gordy said, ‘that right, Jim?’
Jim gave a nod. ‘Hot weather you have to keep them indoors. Can’t have your herd getting heatstroke.’
Harry went to laugh but realised Jim was serious. ‘Heatstroke? Cows can get that? Seriously?’
‘Badly,’ Jim said. ‘Anyway, you ready?’
‘Not really, no,’ Harry replied, pulling on some PPE. ‘But let’s get on with it and see what we have.’
Jim then led Harry and Gordy around the outside of the cordon tape and pointed over at the pit. ‘Call came in just over an hour ago. The farmer spotted something floating in the pit and went for a closer look, thinking a sheep or a deer maybe had fallen in, something like that.’
‘Only it wasn’t a sheep,’ Harry offered.
‘No,’ Jim said. ‘Most definitely not a sheep.’
Harry strained his eyes to see if he could make anything out in the muck, but all he could see was a pool of brown and he had no real urge to get any closer to it. ‘Any idea who it is?’
‘Not a clue,’ Jim said. ‘The body is on its front and covered in cow muck. Won’t be able to see until it’s pulled out. And I’m happy to leave that to the CSI lot. Also, I’m a PCSO, and I’m pretty sure that fishing a corpse out of a lake of cow shit is above my pay grade. By which I mean, way above.’
‘You sure about that?’ Harry asked, then looked over to Gordy for a bit of mutual support. ‘From what I’ve been told, PCSOs are the backbone of the
