The Body on the Beach Read Online Free Page B

suppose so, yes.’
    Brayfield nodded, as if this too was of profound relevance. Then he said, ‘Could we just recap once again exactly what happened this morning?’
    ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake!’ She couldn’t help herself. But, feeling the intense scrutiny of the two police officers after her outburst, she took a deep breath before saying,
‘Yes, yes, of course.’
    ‘Was there anyone else around on the beach this morning when you took your walk?’
    ‘Apart from the dead body?’
    ‘Apart indeed from the dead body. Do you recall seeing anyone else?’
    ‘No, I don’t think I did . . .’ She screwed up her eyes with the effort of recapturing the scene. ‘Ooh yes, yes, there was someone.’
    Carole was aware of WPC Juster tautening in her chair and realized how guilty she must sound, first forgetting, then remembering. But she was damned if she was going to feel guilty. She had
nothing to feel guilty about. She was just doing her duty as a public-spirited citizen. Never again, though. Next time she found a dead body, she’d walk away and leave some other unfortunate
passer-by the task of breaking the news to the police.
    ‘So who was this?’ asked Detective Inspector Bray-field evenly. ‘Who did you see?’
    ‘It was someone in a shiny green anorak with the hood tied up tight. They were walking into the wind, you see. They hurried straight past me.’
    ‘Hurried?’
    ‘Almost ran.’
    ‘Uh-huh. And was it a man or a woman?’
    ‘I couldn’t tell.’
    ‘Really?’ Though deliberately ironing out the intonation, he still couldn’t remove the last wrinkle of scepticism. ‘You didn’t speak to this person?’
    ‘No. I just gave them a nod.’
    ‘And did they speak to you?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Or give you a nod?’ Carole shook her head. ‘That’s a pity, isn’t it?’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘Well, obviously if we had any means of tracking down this other person on the beach, then we might have another witness of your dead body, mightn’t we?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Which might be very useful.’ Before Carole had time to say anything, the Inspector moved abruptly on. ‘So you came straight back here from the beach?’
    ‘As I told you, yes.’
    ‘But before calling the police, you bathed your dog?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘Because he was covered with seaweed and soaked with salt water. If I hadn’t given him a bath, the whole house’d smell.’
    ‘Hm. And then, after washing the dog, you cleaned your kitchen.’ The Inspector ran a hand over his chin, as if checking the quality of his morning’s shave. ‘You
don’t often find dead bodies on the beach, do you, Mrs Seddon?’
    ‘No, of course I don’t!’
    ‘So, given the fact that it’s an unusual – and probably rather a shocking – thing to happen to you, can you understand why I’m surprised that you bathed your dog
and did some of your housework before reporting it?’
    ‘I can see that, with hindsight, it may sound rather odd, but at the time it seemed the perfectly logical thing to do.’
    ‘Did it?’
    ‘Maybe I was in shock. Maybe I needed to do something mechanical, something mundane, to calm myself down.’
    ‘Or maybe, Mrs Seddon, you just needed time to work things out.’
    ‘Work what out?’
    ‘What you were going to say when you rang the police.’
    ‘I didn’t need to work that out. I just had to say exactly what I’d seen.’
    ‘The body on the beach?’
    ‘Precisely.’
    ‘And to direct us to where that body was lying?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Well, Mrs Seddon, everything you’ve told us this morning makes perfect sense.’
    ‘I’m glad to hear it.’
    ‘We followed your directions to the letter. They were very clear.’ Carole nodded in acknowledgment of the compliment. ‘We went down to the breakwater you described and
everything was absolutely fine . . . except for one small detail.’
    ‘And what was that?’
    ‘When we got to the breakwater, there was nothing there. There was no body on the beach,