Naomi nodded.

‘But then it occurs to the woman it’s a bit strange, lying on your back looking up at the sky when the sky had nothing in it worth looking at. Not even a cloud, she reckoned. Anyway, they left him to it, and walked on aways, but as they’d joined the track at Belton, and that’s a good six miles back and Thorn is another seven, eight mile further on, they decided not to go so far, so half hour or so later, they come back, intending to grab a bite at Crowle and then walk back to Belton. And there he is, still lying on his back.’

‘How long had he been dead?’ Naomi asked.

‘They wanted to know same thing,’ Fine told her. ‘They were worried that they might have saved the poor chap had they called for help sooner, but no hope of that. The doctor reckoned he’d been gone hours before. Time of death was estimated something between four and eight the previous evening, going on liver temperature and considering the night had been warm, and that’s as precise as the pathologist wanted to go.’

‘That’s not the most accurate way,’ Alec began. Then: ‘Oh, I see.’

‘What?’ Naomi asked. The best way of ascertaining the time of death was decay of potassium in the eyeball. That was very precise. Why hadn’t that been done? ‘I don’t think I understand.’

‘Crows,’ Alec said. ‘He was lying on his back. They go for the eyes.’

‘Oh my God. I never thought.’ She shuddered. She had, in her career, encountered bodies in many states and conditions but that particular variation had escaped her thus far.

‘It must have been a shock for the hikers,’ Alec said.

‘I imagine so. Look, I brought you a copy of the post-mortem report seeing as you asked for it, but I have to warn you, it don’t make pleasant reading. This is the middle of nowhere and there are foxes and badgers and the like. They don’t fuss too much over what they eat.’

‘No, I understand.’ Alec paused, taking this in. Naomi guessed that Fine would not have been as blunt had Alec not been a fellow officer.

‘So,’ Alec said, ‘is it far from here?’

‘About a fifteen minute walk, I’d say.’ Fine turned to Naomi. ‘Now, do you want to take my arm, or Alec’s or something?’

‘Thanks, but no. You and Alec walk on, Napoleon and I will follow. So long as he’s got someone leading he’ll keep me on the path.’

‘If you’re sure. It’s this way then.’

She heard them set off, feet crunching on stones and then quieter as they reached earth and grass. She urged Napoleon to follow Alec, feeling a little nervous because the place was strange to her and to the dog and, being a route he’d not been trained on, he was effectively as lost as she would have been. She knew from experience, though, that he would be fine if Alec took the lead and she sensed that Alec needed that space, that opportunity to switch into inspector mode and try to separate from the raw emotions that must come with hearing the intricate details of Rupert’s death.

It was so much harder when it was personal.

Naomi listened to the landscape: flowing water, bubbling through what sounded like a narrow channel; shrieks of a bird she could not identify; and the cawing of those damned crows. She liked the Corvidae as a group, had a particular affection for jackdaws, but found herself suddenly repulsed by the thought of scavenger crows.

It was so hot. Wide, open skies and a landscape almost empty of trees made for baking heat and she wished she’d thought to bring a hat. The sound of water, bubbling and trickling on either side of her jarred oddly with the dry heat of the windless day.

‘Was it as hot as this when Rupert died?’ she asked.

She heard Fine turn. ‘No, we’d had a wet spell. In fact the day he died was a misery. The ground beneath him was still soaking when they lifted him, but the day he was found was nearly as warm as this and he’d have dried where the sun caught him.’

‘Any reason?’ Alec asked.

‘Not really. I was wondering about tyre tracks. But why would he want to come out here on a wet day? Surely there’d be better places to meet someone even if he didn’t want them coming to his home.’

‘Rupert was always eccentric,’ Alec reminded her, ‘and I never knew him mind the rain, even the sort of rain you get round here.’

Fine laughed at that. ‘You’re on to something there,’ he said. ‘If the Inuit reckon they get fifty kinds of snow, I reckon we get twice that in species of rain. But no, we didn’t find any significant tyre tracks. Tourists and hikers, and locals too, are in and out of that bit of car park all the time. It’d be very hard to tell if Rupert had driven here in his own car, especially as we can’t find it.’

‘Marcus said it was the Austin Healey …’

‘And you’d think that would be easy to find, wouldn’t you, but we’ve had no sightings. Not one. My guess is it’s either parked up in a barn somewhere or it’s under water. Frankly, we don’t have the resources to do more than put out an all points bulletin and hope someone spots it.’

‘So,’ Alec mused, ‘the best guess is that he drove here, with someone else who then left him either before or after the heart attack and drove off in Rupert’s car.’

‘Makes the most sense. Of course, he could just as easily have driven out here to meet two somebodys and one drove his car off afterwards. Right, we’re there. Mind yourself, Naomi, the ground is very uneven and there’s tussocks and humps all over.’

She released Napoleon’s harness and accepted the offer of Alec’s arm for the walk across the rough terrain. Naomi tried to imagine what it would have been like in the pouring rain. She could feel the dampness of the soil that slipped beneath her feet, the scent of thyme and bog rosemary rising up on the heated air. Alec had not been wrong about the rain, she thought. She recalled wet holidays imprisoned in the caravan, or the chalet her parents rented when their finances improved a bit. Playing cards and board games while horizontal storms raged at the windows and beat a tattoo on the roof so loud it drowned out the radio. She would not have chosen to come out here in that kind of rain.

‘He was lying here,’ Fine said.

Alec left Naomi’s side and she heard him moving slowly, casting about the scene.

‘I don’t suppose the area was searched?’ he asked.

‘Only in a general way. There wasn’t a mark on him and a phone call to his doctor suggested what the PM might show up. We cordoned the area for a couple of days, but didn’t have the manpower to keep anyone here. I’m sorry, Alec, but there seemed no need. To tell the truth I’m still not fully convinced any different.’

‘Not even after those men came to Fallowfields?’ Naomi realized she sounded indignant.

‘Why wait this long?’ Fine asked. ‘The funeral notice in the local paper had contact details for both the undertaker and the solicitor. Marcus Prescott was very careful to make sure of that.’

‘Oh, why particularly?’

‘Because Mr Prescott was anxious that anyone who had dealings with Rupert could get hold of someone. Apparently he’d mentioned some purchases he wanted to make, but Mr Prescott didn’t seem sure about the details. You’d have to ask him.’

‘So, if Rupe owed someone money – legitimate money, that is – they could have spoken directly to the solicitor.’

‘Or even gone to the shop,’ Naomi pointed out.

‘True.’

‘Of course,’ Fine went on, ‘I’m personally not ruling out foul play in one sense, especially considering those two that came to Fallowfields.’

‘In one sense?’

‘I always did find it a bit strange that he had no pills with him. My father’s got a dicky ticker and he won’t go from one room to the next without his medication. Seems to me some bugger might have frightened the old man so much his heart gave out and then took his pills away.’

Eleven

Marcus had a tiny office at the rear of the shop. With Alec, Naomi and Napoleon all present, it was something of a crush. The young woman Alec had spoken to on the phone was minding the shop while they talked. Her name was Emma, Marcus told them, and she cleaned his flat for him and sometimes helped out in the shop.