“I’m sorry to trouble you on the weekend.” His tone was genuinely apologetic. He could hear the squawking of gulls along with the sound of waves crashing in the background. Eric wasn’t in the station.
“That’s okay. What’s up?” Janssen looked towards the beach. Alice was slowing as they walked up the incline not wishing to get too far ahead despite Saffy pulling on her outstretched hand, begging her to get a move on. Alice smiled in his direction and he returned it. His was forced. The sixth sense of his police intuition, along with years of past experience, told him their plans were about to be interrupted.
“We’ve found a body. A young girl, out on the path running along the cliffs through Holkham reserve. You’re going to want to take a look.” Eric sounded nervous. He understood. Recently transferring into CID from uniform, Eric was still to find his feet, although he had everyone’s confidence except his own. “I’m down at Holkham beach myself, not far away. Send someone to pick me up from the main gate, would you?”
Taking a deep breath, Tom forced another smile as he tried to draw Alice’s attention. She appeared to recognise the significance of the call because her own faded as he put his mobile away, trotting over to join them.
“I’m sorry. Something’s come up and I’m going to have to work today, after all.”
“That’s okay.” Alice was despondent. A touch of guilt tugged at him but it was a suspicious death and he couldn’t ignore it.
“We can do this another time.” Saffy realised what they were talking about and threw him a dark look. The feeling of guilt grew. Dropping to his haunches, he addressed the girl. “I promise, I’ll come back with you another day.”
“I’m not talking to you!” Saffy crossed her arms and turned her back to him. Stamping one foot on the ground as she spoke for dramatic effect. He looked to Alice, who smiled. Clearly, that wasn’t the first time she’d witnessed such a reaction.
“We’ll be fine, Tom.” Alice reassured him, reaching over and relieving him of the two bags. “Honestly, it’s okay. Go and do what you have to. Just be sure and call me later.”
He was relieved, feeling his sense of guilt dissipate. Passing her his car keys, he leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She smiled warmly. “They’re sending someone to pick me up, so you can take my car. I’ll pick it up later.” Saffy flatly refused to acknowledge the fact he was leaving or even to look at him, so he leant down and kissed her on the top of her head, ruffling her curls. She responded with a deep harrumph.
Waving them off as they headed for the beach, he turned and set off for the gate a little over three hundred metres away. “Tom!” He looked over his shoulder to see Saffy, standing on the wooden boardwalk leading to the beach, jumping up and down and waving at him with both arms fully extended, flapping in an arc motion. He returned the wave with a broad grin. Then she turned away and ran ahead of her mother along the path, cutting through the pine forest in the most direct route to the beach.
Chapter Two
The route to the crime scene was barely a five-minute drive away. Eric was waiting for him at the edge of the police cordon, a thin blue and white barrier taping off the access to the path through the nature reserve. Despite his assurances, Janssen had the impression the detective constable was still on edge about calling his senior officer on his day off.
“I’m sorry to call you out.” Eric repeated his apology but Janssen waved it away with a dismissive flick of his hand.
Slipping beneath the tape, Eric led them along the path, apparently keen to demonstrate what he’d already achieved prior to his arrival. He spoke at a rate of knots and Janssen struggled to keep up, having to ask him to slow down and start again.
“The call came in from the paramedics shortly after half-past eight. They pronounced her dead at the scene and immediately suspected foul play.” Eric looked at him with a serious expression, conveying the gravity of the scene.
“And who called the ambulance?”
Eric consulted his notebook. “A local lady, out for her morning walk. She came across her on the path.”
They rounded a bend and the path descended, lined on both sides by banks with assorted brush and wild grass growing to knee height. They were in a natural hollow where the path ran close to the cliff edge. The sound of the waves thundering against the rocks below carried on the breeze making them feel much closer. At high tide, the sound would be greater still as the low-lying land making up the Holkham basin would fill.
From here, the legs of a woman were clearly visible protruding onto the path. Her waist and upper body were lying on the shallow incline of the bank behind her. Coming closer, he wondered whether a woman was an apt description. She looked far younger. Maybe in her late teens. It was hard to tell. Her make-up was neatly applied, understated. Bright red lipstick and dark eye-liner accentuated her cheekbones and angular jaw. If it weren’t for the pale grey skin, one could be forgiven for thinking she was asleep, so peaceful was her expression. A sheen of frost covered her from head to toe. She had been out here much of the night.
“It’s the bruising around the neck,” Eric said, as if his boss may have missed it. He hadn’t.
Careful not to get too close to the body, he shifted his position in order to get a better look. Eric was right. He had seen enough strangulations before to know that this girl had been throttled. The bruising followed the lines of two grown hands closing around the girl’s throat. He assessed her. She couldn’t be much more than five-foot-three, petite.
