The phone call at three fifty-two had told her of a dead body in the River Porter, at Midland Station.
She frowned as she realised she didn’t even know the River Porter was at the station, and she wished there had been time to check the internet – her DS, Beth Machin, would know, and Erica would have to be careful how she hid her ignorance until she could get to a computer.
She pulled into the station car park and put a POLICE ON CALL sign in her car, then ran across to where she could see crime scene tape.
‘DI Cheetham,’ the young PC Sam King said with a smile, and held up the tape for her to duck under. It occurred to Erica every time she saw Sam just how good-looking he was, and yet he never spoke of girlfriends. His deep brown eyes and dark hair were enough to win the hearts of many a fair maiden, but, like her, he always seemed to be at work.
‘Thanks, Sam. DS Machin here?’
‘She is. She’s having a coffee while she’s waiting for you.’
Erica nodded without responding. She saw a railway employee waving at her so she headed towards him, guessing he would know what was going on, and would probably have information for her.
‘I’ll take you to the river when you’re all here, ma’am. You might want to get a hot drink first, it’s going to be wet and cold down there.’ He pointed towards an open office door, and she saw Beth Machin waving from the window to the left of the door.
She headed towards her sergeant. Down there? So where’s this bloody river?
Beth Machin, looking immaculate as always despite the early hour, nodded as Erica entered the small office, Beth handed her a mug of coffee. Her red hair was in a ponytail and she’d even managed to put on a little lipstick. Just for a moment Erica wanted to punch her in the mouth.
‘Morning, boss. This is Graham Carver, the station manager.’
Erica looked at the tall, dark-haired man with the serious expression, and she smiled at him. ‘Mr Carver. Have you been called in as well?’
‘I have,’ he said. ‘If I can help…’
‘Is there some way we can have refreshments set up for our officers?’ Erica asked. ‘It’s a cold ’un, and they work better when fed and watered.’
‘I’ve already asked our coffee shop lady to come in. We’ll get that open for you. I do want to emphasise that you’re going to be really wet, but hopefully you won’t have to go beyond the Megatron, because you’ll need a boat if you do. The water’s running high and it’s running fast, so you need to take care. We’ve had hell of a lot of rain.’
‘Is the body still in the water?’
‘It’s wedged apparently. We had night workers on last night, checking everything was okay because of the amount of rain. The body is in the Porter. It meets up with the Sheaf lower down. Under platform five actually.’
The internet was sounding more and more like a good idea to Erica. She had no idea what the Megatron was, and wasn’t there walkways she could walk on? Her bed was sounding more inviting by the minute. She could have ignored the phone call… And rivers met under platform five? This was starting to sound a bit Harry Potterish, and she smiled.
‘Ian and Mike are here, boss,’ Beth said, so Erica handed her half-drunk coffee to Graham Carver, thanked him, and both women left the warmth of his office for the coldness of the station concourse.
Erica led the way to the man who was going to take them to the body, and he looked at the footwear of the two women.
‘They expensive trainers?’ Callum McNicol, the night manager who had been the first to stumble across the body, shook his head as he spoke.
Beth and Erica looked at each other.
‘We need wellingtons, I assume,’ Erica said.
‘No, DI Cheetham, you need waders.’
Erica took out her phone and spoke to the Forensics team, telling them they were going to see the body in situ, and to bring waders; the river was deep.
DCs Ian Thomas and Mike Nestor groaned. In looks, both men were an almost perfect match for each other. Over six feet in height, both had dark brown hair showing no signs of thinning, and grey-blue eyes almost identical between the two men. Their personalities matched their kindly faces, and Erica knew she was blessed to have snagged these two men as part of her team.
Ian and Mike had decided to change into wellingtons as they’d exited their cars, but it seemed they would be as useless as the women’s trainers. Everyone hung around until Erica and Beth returned from their cars wearing wellingtons even though guessing they wouldn’t be adequate, and Callum led them outside to the car park. The rain was still relentless, and the roar of the water was deafening.
Erica tried to squash the feelings of claustrophobia as they descended through the culvert where the river flowed underground, the river that would eventually meet up with the mighty Don, and end up flowing into the North Sea. The noise was awesome, scary, as they heard the roar of the waters pulsing through. Within seconds they felt soaked, and water had ridden over the tops of their ineffective wellingtons.
They could walk part of the way on a ledge, their torch beams waving around as they struggled to maintain some sort of balance, but then had to drop into the water and feel the intensity of the powerful force of the River Porter as it battled its way through to the Megatron, the cathedral-like structure deep under the
