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!’
Adrian immediately removed his jacket and threw it over the woman to keep her warm. He stuffed his phone into his back pocket and knelt down next to her, gently removing the muddy hair from her face. She was younger than him, mid twenties at a guess.
‘Can you hear me? I’m Detective Sergeant Adrian Miles; I’m going to help you. Can you move?’
She nodded her head weakly. How long had she been here? She must be freezing. Even in the summer the river wasn’t warm.
‘Can you tell me your name?’
‘I’m so c-c-cold,’ she said faintly.
‘We have to wait here for the guys with the stretcher, OK? I don’t want to move you in case anything is broken.’
He went to stand again but she grabbed his hand, this time with more strength than before.
‘P-p-please get me out of h-h-here,’ the woman whispered.
DS Miles could see she had tried to pull herself out of the water, which is why only part of her was still submerged.
‘We really should wait for the paramedics.’
‘C-cold … P-please,’ she rasped.
‘OK, I’ll try. But you tell me straight away if I hurt you.’
Lying next to her on the bank, Adrian got as close to her as he could, the chill of the water against his thighs inconsequential. She groaned as he tilted her enough that he could slip his shoulder underneath hers and gradually slide his arm under her for support as he tried to pull her from the brambles. She was weak and completely limp, with barely enough strength to lift her head. The left side of her torso was supported by the right side of his. Some of her blonde hair had become entangled in the spiny branches that protruded from the hedge. Adrian gently tugged at the hair to dislodge it, leaving some of it behind.
As soon as she was free, he put his arm around her waist and tried to move with her away from the hedge. Her head thumped against his chest. He felt her sigh heavily, her weak heartbeat gently beating against his arm. He pushed his legs against the floor of the muddy bank and as he moved up onto the safety of the grass, she moved with him. He sat up and she lolloped forwards, weak from exhaustion. Adrian didn’t care to think how long she had been lying there. He moved her onto his lap and put her arm around his shoulder.
‘Can you put your arms around my neck and hold it? I need to use my arm to leverage myself to standing.’
Fingernails dug into his skin. He could feel that she was using everything she had to hold on and probably wouldn’t be able to keep it up for long, so he pushed himself up before quickly making sure both of his arms were securely around her. He heard the gasps of the women as he emerged from the bushes with the woman lying against him.
‘Oh my God!’ one of the women cried.
‘Is she alive?’ another shouted.
‘Could you get some blankets or something to warm her up quickly while we wait for the medics?’
In situations like this, it was instinct and training that carried Adrian through, but at some point, there is a moment where you get to think about what is actually going on and that’s when the reality of the situation hits home. Who was this girl? How had she got here? Who had done this to her? She was petite and her injuries were not the result of an accident. He could see fingermarks on her neck and he clenched his jaw to suppress the rage that threatened.
Adrian lay her on the grass and stroked her forehead. She began to tremble and Adrian hoped the medics would appear before she got hypothermia.
‘Thank you,’ she said, her voice breaking as she spoke, and a guttural moan followed soon after as she began to cry.
The ladies from the houses opposite the wall appeared holding blankets. He noticed one of them was filming with their mobile phone, which ignited the anger that he was fighting so hard to suppress.
‘I’ll be back in a moment. I’m just going to grab those blankets, see if we can warm you up a bit.’
She tried to grab at his shirt, to stop him from leaving. She mouthed as if to speak but nothing came out.
‘I won’t be a second. I’m coming back, I promise.’
He stood and walked over to the woman holding the phone.
‘Can I ask you not to share that video until we have had a chance to identify the woman and inform her family. It would be horrible to find out something like this from a video on the internet, wouldn’t it?’
‘Oh, I wasn’t going to share it,’ she said, her cheeks flushing.
‘My colleagues will be here any second to
