carried bags containing their equipment, the photographer looking breathless and rumpled. The snow had stopped and the sky had cleared, the sun shining coldly on the sparkling snow,having no thawing effect on it at all. In fact the temperature had fallen, if anything.
‘Can you lead us to it?’ the sergeant asked her, scanning the surrounding landscape apprehensively.
‘I suppose so,’ Thea sighed, with considerable reluctance. She had become increasingly agitated as she waited for them to arrive, checking her phone repeatedly, and then clearing pathways around the yard, from rabbit shed to barn and linking the garage to the house. She stayed at the back of the house deliberately, trying to close her mind to the wretched scene she had witnessed. At one point she heard the donkey braying, and Hepzie yapping in response, but she remained where she was, persuading herself that the clearance work took priority.
It was hard work, the shovel cutting sheer cliffs in the snow. She checked her car to see whether it might be possible to move it, but was daunted by the prospect of having to dig tracks for it for a substantial distance. She was already exhausted by her exertions when the rescue party finally arrived. The fresh snowfall continued relentlessly, threatening to obliterate the work she’d accomplished.
‘You took your time,’ she accused, when the men finally arrived, just as the sky cleared. ‘Where did you have to come from?’
‘Cirencester,’ said the sergeant. ‘But that’s not the reason we were delayed. Never mind, we’re here now. Could you just show us what you found, do you think?’
Wearily she escorted the police across the donkey’s paddock as far as the shed and then pointed out that she had climbed over the fence away to the left, when they might prefer to go through the gate at the bottom, and walk along the fence to the spot where the body lay. The donkey tracks could be seen going down to the gate, and coming back again, the snow sufficiently broken up to comprise a relatively inviting pathway. The men agreed to the suggestion with no hesitation, their heads hunched into hoods and their knees getting wet from melting snow, which had clung to their legs as they sank into the deeper parts, and was then turned to liquid by the heat from their bodies. The doctor looked especially damp, and the photographer sniffed. Looking at him more closely, Thea noted that his nose was red, and his eyes bleary. ‘Have you got a cold?’ she asked him.
‘Probably,’ he said thickly.
It all took an unreasonable length of time. A biting wind had sprung up. Every step took effort, and Thea’s legs were aching. Few words were exchanged, everyone silenced by the unusual conditions. For most English people,snow recalled carefree childhood memories, with the schools closed and dads extracting half-forgotten toboggans from the back of the garage. It represented a sudden holiday, something to relish for its beauty and strangeness.
‘How much further is it?’ asked the young constable.
‘Just at the end of this fence, in a dip down there,’ Thea told him. ‘And then you’re going to have to carry him all the way back to the road – aren’t you?’
‘Eventually,’ said the sergeant, who was the nominal leader of the group. ‘First the doctor has to certify life extinct, and a close examination of the scene undergone.’
‘Yes,’ said Thea, fully aware of the procedures. ‘And he has to be identified. And I don’t have any idea who he is.’ As she spoke, she suddenly remembered the tall grey man she’d glimpsed on the first day.
‘Plenty of time for that,’ said the sergeant. ‘Once we’ve seen what sort of a state he’s in.’
Finally the corner of the fence was visible. ‘There,’ Thea pointed, knowing the men would be able to see it before she did, walking ahead of her as they were. The photographer was in the lead, raising his camera to look at the display screen, swinging it