cranny among the pebbles and fronds of seaweed.
âWhatâs wrong?â she asked as she joined Alec.
His face was set. âI saw a shoe sticking up above a rock, at an odd angle. I went closer and saw an ankle. The foot is still in the shoe. I must go and look, but I want you to keep the girls away, so that they donât follow me.â
Feeling ill, Daisy sat down suddenly on a nearby rock. âOh darling, not a ⦠! I suppose some poor soul fell overboard, or drowned while swimming, and was washed up by the waves.â
âItâs just possible someone stumbled among the rocks and knocked himself unconscious. I must go and look.â
âYes, of course. Iâll stop them if they come this way.â
Alec was not gone long. He returned tight-lipped and rather pale. Daisy tried not to wonder what could make an experienced CID detective turn pale. A sea-bloated body chewed by fish?
âDead,â he said. âI canât be sure but I think itâs that chap from the inn, the landlord.â
âOh no!â Daisy exclaimed, aghast. âNot George Enderby!â
8
F lying high above the trenches in his observer plane, Alec had missed the worst horrors of the Great War. As a detective he had seen victims done to death in a variety of ways, but he couldnât remember ever having seen a body as battered as George Enderbyâs. Every visible inch of him was gashed and scraped, his shirt and fawn flannels ripped and blotched with blood. He lay twisted among the rocks near the foot of the cliff, partly on a patch of sand, one leg caught on a larger boulder so that his foot stuck up in the air. The contorted position suggested that most of his bones were broken.
So much Alec had taken in before returning to Daisy, thanking heaven neither she nor the girls had made the grisly discovery.
âI think itâs him,â he stressed, âI canât be sure. I must stay here. Youâll have to get the girls away and report the body.â
She looked at him in dismay. âDarling, canât you come too? Youâre on holiday, after all.â
âThis has nothing to do with being a copper. Itâs my duty as a citizen to stay, as youâre available to report.â He frowned, remembering that she was in no condition to make haste up the cliff path. âUnless youâd rather stay? The tideâs going out, so thereâs no danger. And thereâs no need to go near the body, just to keep people away, and I rather doubt youâd be swamped with sightseers.â
âNo, Iâll go,â she said with a shudder. âIt was ⦠it was an accident, wasnât it?â
âThatâs what youâll report. Itâs none of my business, Iâm happy to say. And youâd better not say itâs Enderby in case Iâm wrong. Donât give me away, will you.â
âOf course not, darling. Youâre on holiday.â
âAnd hope to stay that way. Now off you go, and donât try to hurry, love. Whoever he is, heâs beyond help.â
âWhat shall I tell the girls?â
âIâll leave that up to you.â
Alec knew he sounded relieved at not having to face that problem, and he wasnât surprised when Daisy wrinkled her nose at him. He also knew she was pleased. When he first started seeing her regularly, he had more than once made a fool of himself by accusing her of not caring sufficiently for the welfare of his precious daughter. But Belinda adored her, and he could only plume himself on having married a woman who had turned out to be a wonderful, if unconventional, motherânot to mention an adorable, if unconventional, wife.
He kissed her and watched her pick her way back towards the girls, careful to take the easiest route and use her hands rather than trying to balance when she had to climb. It was going to be strange starting again with a baby after ten years of watching Bel grow up. A
Jack Coughlin, Donald A. Davis