I don’t remember ending the call. I don’t even remember holding the phone anymore. The next thing I knew was when we heard sirens and two police cars arrived. The officers were polite, asking what had happened. I nodded towards Olivia, watching as one of the officers walked up the scaffold plank ramp, looking down at Olivia’s empty eyes, reaching for his radio.
A female officer asked a question, she asked it twice but I couldn’t understand the words. I blinked as my world went dark.
* * *
My teeth chattered as I sat at the kitchen table, I’d tried to sip the sweet tea I’d been offered but I’d spilt most of it so the kindly female officer had taken it from my hands. I’d explained who I was and that Sally was my head girl. I told them we had been preparing the horses, feeding, mucking out, all very mundane activities. And then…
Just thinking of what had happened, touching the pitchfork. The policewoman was speaking again. I apologised, wiping my eyes, I was distracted. She told me she understood, I didn’t think she could. My morning had been so normal, just another Friday morning, business as usual, it had almost been breakfast time and I’d had that nice bacon to use up.
Oh, God… Olivia was dead!
The thought hit me like a sledgehammer. It wasn’t as if I could forget this, but I kept trying to put it from my mind. Oh, her mother. I’d have to tell her mother, I tried to stand up but the police officer asked me to sit down, they would do that, they would look after everything now.
The most bizarre thoughts crossed my mind. I’d once joked with Sally some years before, ‘if I die just chuck me on the muck heap!’ - we’d both laughed. Now, there was nothing at all amusing about a young life cut short.
* * *
“Please, tell me again what happened?”
“I was mucking out, I was on the back yard, just finishing up, I heard Hilary screaming, I thought she might have seen a rat, something like that. I ran to where she was and… And I saw her there… Oh shit, she’s dead…” Something broke within me, the floodgates opened, tears bursting from my eyes, I struggled for breath as I sobbed. She had been there with us yesterday, and now.
“Take your time…”
“There’s not much more to say…” I stutter between sobs. “That’s it… Then I called 999 and…”
I closed my eyes, but could only see the image of the young girl, staring up at the sky with her empty eyes.
* * *
“We’ll get scenes of crime in, but this is an almost impossible crime scene. There might be some prints on the pitchfork handle but as for much else. We’ll just have to wait and see. Keep an eye on the two ladies, they’re both in shock, get them out of the way and assign someone to them to make sure they are okay.”
“Kelly!” I looked up, there was John Vance, my second in command. At almost fifty he was both considerably older than me, looking towards early retirement. He had always been the ‘almost’ man. Almost making promotion but never quite making the grade, he had been passed over more than once and it had left him jaded, bordering on angry.
Wearing the cheap suit, he wore day after day and what little hair he had greying and messy. He was a good copper, but it was clear he had wanted more from his life. And what of me? Did I want to be here, almost forty, yes, I was heading up homicide in a good-sized force but every new murder was starting to take its toll on my mind and body.
I’d rushed here from the gym this morning, getting changed quickly and my long blond hair was still damp. I was trying to fight against my body as the long hours behind a desk were turning me podgy. I sighed.
“Morning John, sorry to drag you out so early.”
“What have we got?”
“White female, aged twenty-one years old with stab wounds from a pitchfork to the-”
“Sorry, did you say pitchfork?”
“Yeah, what else do you expect at a stable? The poor lass was stabbed in the chest with a fork and buried in a shallow grave. The stable owner found her, she’s in shock.”
“Christ, I bet she is.”
“What do we know?”
“Waiting on SOCO but the scene is a mess. Come on, I’ll show you. She’s there.” I gestured to the muck heap.
“What buried in the shite?”
“Yeah…”
“Fuck! Poor cow!”
“Right… They’ll struggle to find much in the way of evidence. There should be prints, maybe DNA. Do we know if she was assaulted?”
“No sign, but we haven’t got that far yet. Right, they’re here. We’ll know more when they’ve done their work. Let me brief them. Grab a brew, we’ve set up in the tack room, it’s just over there.”
* * *
“Miss? I’m DCI Kelly Jarvis. Can I speak with you? I’m so sorry for what happened; however, we need to do the best we can for Olivia now.”
“Of course, I understand. I’m sorry about earlier.”
“You have every right to be upset in the circumstances, I understand. Just rest assured we’ll do the best for her now.”
“Is she still…?”
“We have to wait for the pathologist and the scenes of crimes team. It would be best if you and your colleague stay in here for now. I or one of the team will come and find you if there is anything we need.”
“Thank you.”
I left her sitting in the untidy front room of the farmhouse. I’d seen it many times before, the shock of finding a body, made
