LITMIR.BIZ

       Chapter One

      DS Adrian Miles soaked in the sunrise as he drove home along Glasshouse Lane after a few days away with his partner, DS Imogen Grey, far from local prying eyes. They had barely noticed the relationship creeping up on them. They had gone from strangers to good friends within weeks of meeting each other, then things had blossomed and grown between them until the chemistry was undeniable. They were still in the early stages, not enough to announce anything, not enough to tell anyone.

      He smiled to himself as he thought about the last few days, weeks, months. Every moment was a countdown to the next time they could be alone together.

      It was always so quiet on these suburban streets, especially at this time in the morning, and the calming effect of the River Exe seemed to ebb into these surrounding neighbourhoods. Something about living near water makes people generally more relaxed. He must have driven past at least ten people out for a morning stroll with their dogs. Maybe getting a dog would be a good way to get out of the house more; these days, he mostly just drove anywhere rather than walk.

      More often than not, as he drove he found himself thinking about Imogen and missing her when she wasn’t beside him, in any capacity. These feelings had crept up on him and he found himself completely losing himself to her, as though he had no choice in the matter. He’d also sometimes find himself smiling, without realising. Was this happiness?

      It was certainly difficult with Imogen wanting to keep it a secret. Although relationships were allowed it definitely complicated things at work. The DCI had expressed in the past that she wasn’t overly keen on relationships within the unit. It was a mess for sure, but worst-case scenario one of them could transfer to a different division. He wouldn’t let work get in the way of this. Adrian had never felt like other people in as much as he had never thought himself capable of a meaningful and grown-up relationship. If that’s what this was then he would rather lose his job than her. He couldn’t lose her, not after all the pain of losing his previous more serious relationships. Jobs were replaceable, people weren’t.

      He spotted a group of women gathered by the riverside wall. As much as anything, it was a strange time of day for this kind of gathering. The sun was barely up. They were looking over towards a small muddy offshoot of river that ran through the thickets. There was something about the way they were talking to each other that made Adrian pull the car over. Brows creased, they turned towards him, eyeing him suspiciously before turning their attention back to something on the other side of the wall.

      ‘Everything all right?’ Adrian said, pulling his warrant card from his pocket and showing the women.

      Their faces lightened immediately and one of the women stepped forwards. She scrutinised his ID before speaking.

      ‘There’s something in the water. The kids were out playing on that patch of grass last night. They kept saying how there was someone in the water and this morning my two maintained they saw a dead body down in the water before they came home – had nightmares because of it. We thought it was part of their game last night, you know what kids are like. We can’t really see from here and none of us want to climb the wall to go and check. There’s something there but it’s in the shadow of those bushes. It could be anything.’

      ‘Why didn’t you call the police?’ Adrian asked.

      ‘I don’t know if you’ve got kids, but they can be known to tell the odd porky. I asked the girls if they would come with me and look, but there are so many bushes we can’t see anything clearly.’

      ‘Where?’ Adrian said, walking up to the wall and looking over into the riverside shrubbery.

      The light was terrible and so he would have to climb over to take a closer look.

      ‘Can you see that blue thing?’ The same woman who had spoken pointed towards the left side of the greenery.

      Adrian put his card back in his pocket and hoisted himself over the wall, trying to make it look effortless – he had an audience, after all.

      The drop on the other side was a little lower and he just managed to save himself from embarrassment when he fell by placing his hand on the ground as though he were a superhero who had fallen from a great height. Anything over four feet was a bit too high for Adrian. It wasn’t like he was trying to impress anyone, but he wanted to avoid any humiliation, as this could all end up in a police report, depending on what he found in the river.

      He took his phone out of his pocket and switched on the torch; the sky had adopted a grey-and-orange hue as the sun hid behind the houses. The blue thing in the bushes looked like denim. It was obscured and could just as easily be a discarded denim jacket or plastic bag from a newsagent as anything else. He tried not to think about the anything else. As he got closer it became clear that whatever it was, it wasn’t a discarded item of clothing. Please don’t let it be a child.

      Holding his breath, Adrian edged closer to the pair of legs that lay in the undergrowth, the top of the body still obscured by the bushes. Forced to climb into the river, he put his phone between his teeth as he walked around the legs into the water. It was cold and muddy; he tried not to slip on the mud banks as he made his way to the top of the form. After taking the phone from his mouth, he shone the light on the legs, gradually moving upwards until he found a head.

      It was a woman. She wore a baggy cream Aran jumper and jeans. One of her boots was missing. Her right arm, hips and backside were submerged in the water, but her body was contorted in such a way that her head, legs and left arm were out of the water. Her face was dirty, one eye swollen from a possible fracture as the bruising had closed it, but her other big blue eye was staring at him, fixed.

      He turned the torch off on his phone and dialled DI Matt Walsh.

      ‘We need a team down on Glasshouse Lane. I’ve sent over my location. I’ve found a body in the water.’

      ‘A body in the water? A dead body? How?’ Walsh responded.

      ‘Well, I was driving down the road when I saw a group of women by the riverside wall. I approached the women and they said that last night their kids were playing outside and this morning told their parents they saw something that resembled a body.

      ‘Description of the victim is: female, Caucasian, maybe twenty-five years old, blonde hair, blue eyes. Looks like she was assaulted beforehand. She’s been here at least the one night, not sure how much longer.’

      Suddenly, Adrian felt a hand grip his calf. The kind you half expect when you step out of bed in the middle of the night. He froze. He took a deep breath before turning the dim light of the phone screen towards the woman to illuminate her face. She blinked slowly.

      She was alive.

      ‘Adrian?’ Walsh said.

      ‘She’s alive, Walsh, get an ambulance! She’s alive!’