A Cornish Revenge (The Loveday Ross Cornish Mysteries Book 1) Read Free Page A

we should all stick around until the police arrive.’
     
    ‘Sorry, boss,’ Detective Constable Amanda Fox spoke into her mobile phone as she pushed open the back door of the Truro police station and headed for her car. ‘But something’s come up.’ She grimaced, anticipating Sam Kitto’s reaction at the other end of the line. ‘I told the Super that it was your weekend off…but he insisted on my calling you.’
      Detective Inspector Sam Kitto, of the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, glanced at the fishing rod propped up against the back door and a taunting image of the river bank, where he’d planned to spend the day, flashed through his mind. He ran a hand through his springy dark brown hair and sighed. ‘OK, Amanda. What is it this time?’
      ‘It’s a body, boss…out at Borlase Cove.’
      Sam frowned. Bodies washing ashore were not exactly uncommon in a county bounded on three sides by the sea. They usually turned out to be suicides, or some ill-fated foreign crewman lost overboard from a passing ship. He searched his mind, but couldn’t recall any recent reports of missing people.
      ‘What’s so special about this one?’
      ‘It looks suspicious, boss.’
      ‘Suspicious?’
      Amanda had reached her car and was clicking to unlock the doors. ‘It looks like he was tied down to the beach. Sergeant Tregellis and DC Rowe are already there. Want me to pick you up, boss?’
      Visions of a recent journey in the passenger seat of his young detective constable’s car as she sped along the busy A30, negotiating traffic like an obstacle race, flashed into his mind.
      ‘It’s fine,’ he said. ‘I’ll meet you there.’ From his cottage in Stithians he’d have a head start on his DC, assuming she was speaking from the station in Truro.
      Blue and white incident tape fluttered across the road as Sam approached, shaking his head and giving a wry smile at the valiant efforts of two zealous young officers to preserve a possible crime scene. Several police vehicles, and various other unmarked cars, were already in the parking area. As he pulled alongside them, he spotted Amanda’s car speeding over the bumps behind him. He waited for her to park and get out and they walked together across the springy turf, making for the trodden path that wound its way to the figures grouped about the cliff edge.
      ‘What do we know?’ he called over his shoulder, as they moved in single file past warning notices highlighting the dangers of underground shafts and tunnels.
      ‘It’s weird, this one.’ Her voice reached him in snatches as she shouted over the wind. ‘…Looks like he was tied down to the shingle…and just left to drown.’
      ‘He?’
      ‘Seems so.’
      Tregellis and Rowe were already taking witness statements. He narrowed his eyes and scanned the horizon. Another sheet of rain was making its way ashore. Sam and Amanda moved to the edge and looked down into the cove. The familiar rotund shape of Home Office pathologist, Dr Robert Bartholomew, clad in the necessary police issue white overalls, was crouched by the body. Two similarly dressed Scene of Crime Officers were on their knees amongst the shingle, collecting whatever scraps of evidence were around. Sam was holding out little hope for that. The police photographer was pacing the cove, recording the scene from every angle.
      Sam instructed Amanda to take over from Sergeant Tregellis. Will joined him on the cliff edge, following his boss’s gaze out to sea.
      ‘Not a lot they can do down there, boss. Doc reckons the tide’s been over him a couple of times already.’
      ‘How did the team get down there?’
      Will Tregellis nodded towards a lifeboat and two larger fishing vessels that were waiting just offshore ready to offer what help they could. ‘The RNLI’s inshore boat,’ he said. ‘It’s just about the only vessel that could get into that cove. They’re waiting to recover the body and bring the others