“Daisy!” Keya exclaimed, sitting up. She realised it wasn’t that dark and sunlight was penetrating her bright tropical-themed curtains with their pink flamingo design.
Surely not Daisy from the bakery.
“Do you know her?” asked Gilly uncertainly.
“She might be the Daisy who baked the bread we tried last week. Where are you?”
“Knights Farm Shop. Aunt Beanie sent me. She was trying to take charge at the standing stones, but it was rather chaotic.”
“It’s going to take me nearly an hour to get to you. Can you stop people leaving?”
“Too late. Finding a dead body rather dampened the celebratory mood and people started walking out as soon as it was discovered. Aunt Beanie instructed me to take photos, but I had to be careful after a man with dreadlocks threatened to smash my phone when I tried to snap a picture of him. And my battery’s running low, so please hurry.”
Keya jumped out of bed and fell over her shoes.
“Oh Toda!” she exclaimed. It was a phrase she turned to when trying not to swear.
Pushing herself to her feet, and rubbing her knees, she remembered the phrase ‘more haste, less speed’.
She decided she needed a shower to wake herself up. After that, dressed in her police uniform, she made herself a cup of coffee in a Waterwheel branded thermal mug, grabbed her crime scene bag, and headed out of the front door.
As she hurried down the garden path, she heard her neighbour and landlady, Peggy, call, “Trouble already?”
Keya turned and looked up at the window of the plain-fronted brick house which adjoined hers.
“I’m afraid so. Somebody’s found a body up at the standing stones.” Keya realised she shouldn’t have told Peggy that, but as she switched on the engine of her marine-blue Polo, because her official police vehicle was at the station, the car radio came to life.
It was tuned into the local Corinium Radio station, and the news headlines opened with the disturbing story of the body of a young woman at the Rollright standing stones. The report added that it had been discovered as the sun rose over the Cotswolds on the summer solstice.
So much for keeping the death quiet. The local press was likely to arrive before she did. She called Ryan.
“I’ve just heard the news,” he said, answering her call immediately. “Is this our case?”
“Unless someone else gets there before me. Gilly called and I’m on my way, but it’ll take me half an hour. In the meantime, Aunt Beanie is in charge.”
“Is that good or bad?” Ryan asked.
“I’ve no idea.”
Keya’s next call was to her boss, Inspector Evans.
He sounded as if her call had woken him, but he listened to her explanation before he said, “Very well, Sergeant. Keep me informed. I’ll sort out the coroner and the forensics side.” Despite his mother’s death, the inspector continued to work in the same professional, but sometimes unorthodox manner he always had, and he seemed to thrive when complex or important cases turned up.
Finishing the call, Keya realised the inspector was right and that the person they most needed at the scene, if there really was a dead body, was Sujin, their crime scene technician. She wondered if he was still at the mini festival or if he’d just climbed into bed and the inspector’s call would wake him.
Keya slowed as she approached the area of the standing stones. Cars were parked on the verges as well as in the lay-bys. So much for Daisy receiving permission from the farm shop for everyone to park there. On the road, groups of people were hanging about, apparently waiting for something to happen.
Keya parked behind the first car she came to. Removing a blue ‘Police Slow’ sign from the back of her car, she positioned it in the road. She carried another one with her, along with a bag of crime scene essentials, and walked towards the coppice and the entrance to the grassy area where the standing stones were.
“There you are!” cried Gilly, rushing towards Keya.
All eyes turned to stare at the two of them.
“What took you so long?” remonstrated Gilly.
Keya ignored the question and asked, “What’s the situation?”
“Aunt Beanie took charge until a Dr Reid turned up and told her he was taking over. I thought Aunt Beanie was about to argue, but she looked down at the body of the dead woman and the boyfriend who was refusing to leave her side and changed her mind. She’s consoling the boyfriend now, and she sent me back out to wait for you. And here you are.”
“Here I am,” Keya confirmed. “And the first thing I need to do is prevent another accident. Can you carry this sign to the far end of the parked cars and position it behind them? This road gets busy, and we need to slow the traffic down. And I should move these people on. We can’t have them loitering around by the side of the road.”
“I don’t think there’s much you can do about them on your own,” Gilly replied. “I did suggest to some of them that they wait at the farm shop, but they just ignored me.”
Conscious that she was the focus of everyone’s attention, Keya left the sign with Gilly and entered the small coppice where more people were sitting on stone benches or beside them on the grass.
She expected to find crowds of people milling in and around the standing stones, so she was surprised to find a rope cordoning off the area. One end was attached to the fence surrounding the coppice and the other to a branch which had been driven into the ground halfway towards another small wood.
Beyond the cordon, forty or so people were sitting quietly inside the stone circle. In the centre, a woman wearing a shawl, who Keya thought might be Aurora, placed a piece of wood on a fire. Keya sniffed and watched the wisps of smoke hanging in the air.
In the far corner, a woman waved energetically. It was Aunt Beanie, although the bow of her bright yellow headscarf appeared to have wilted on top of her head. Sitting on a camp chair beside her was a slumped figure whose face was hidden in their hands.
As Keya searched for the body, another figure lifted his hat in acknowledgement. It was Dr Reid. She approached him as he stood on the far side of the nearest standing stones.
“This is quite terrible. I knew nothing good would come of the summer solstice gathering, but a dead body? And Daisy, of all people.”
Keya struggled to swallow and felt a pain at the back of her throat. It was the Daisy she’d met. But who’d want to hurt such a sweet young woman? A woman so full of life. Keya gulped. Not any longer. And she was jumping to conclusions.
