“Gregson said it was a local girl,” Phillips blew on his hands, wished he had remembered to bring gloves.
“Young local girl, a pretty brunette called Lucy Mathieson. I recognised her vaguely; her family live on the island. Mother’s a homemaker, father’s a retired teacher. She’d been away at university in Newcastle. She came home for the holidays.”
Ryan was amazed to find that he knew so much about the local people. To his knowledge, he had been no more than a passive participant in island life. Maybe his natural instinct to observe everyone and everything around him hadn’t quite been extinguished after all.
Phillips shook his head again. “Picked a nice spot for it.”
Ryan nodded, glancing briefly at the view out to sea, then back towards the altar. The crumbled stones indicated where walls once stood tall and firm to shelter the holy men from the worst of the elements. Columns of varying height ran down the centre of what he guessed must have been the main place of worship. He frowned, black brows drawing together as he looked at the scene afresh. Chunks of the stone and rock which had once been used to form clean, well-built lines were displaced and scattered in a roughly circular pattern a few feet wide of where the girl lay. At first glance, it looked like natural deterioration but he wondered.
“It looks,” he paused to find the right word. “Ceremonial.”
Phillips huffed out a sigh. “I hate these bloody ritual killings. Bad enough that they’ve snuffed someone out, they have to make a song and dance about it too. Adds insult to injury.”
Ryan knew that Phillips needed the chatter. Everyone had their own way of coping with death, especially the people who had to deal with it up close.
“It’s the solstice today.”
Phillips raised a bushy brown eyebrow. “Didn’t realise you were into all that hocus pocus.”
“I’m not. It never hurts to know what’s going on around you, though.”
Phillips chewed on his bottom lip. “In that case, you’re going to have a hard job keeping people off the island.”
“I know. I’m expecting a call from Gregson any minute now. I’ll deal with it.”
“The road block’s bought us a bit of time,” Phillips mused, “but this place is popular at Christmas, even without it being a special day of the year.”
Ryan jammed impatient hands in his pockets. “Fucking tourists.”
Phillips slanted him a look. “You’re a tourist here, yourself, boyo.”
A ghost of a smile played on Ryan’s lips. “Guess you’ve got me there.”
Both men fell silent as the doctor finally approached, slightly out of breath. Ryan thought he looked very much like an older version of his son. Around sixty, but with an attractively lined face and a lean, lived-in frame coming in just under six feet. He boasted a full head of grey hair which still held glints of its previous blonde and the lively green eyes he’d passed onto his son flicked over the makeshift tent, before coming to rest soberly on Ryan’s face.
“Ryan, isn’t it?” he shifted his medical bag and held out a long, artistic hand. “Alex told me it was urgent.”
“Thank you for coming so quickly, Dr Walker.” Ryan took the hand, found it firm.
“Steve, please.”
Ryan nodded, turned. “This is Detective Sergeant Frank Phillips. He’ll be working on the investigation with me.”
Ryan watched the older man’s eyes register slight surprise and had a moment to think that he had obviously been the subject of some discussion on the island. At least the good doctor was forthright.
“I didn’t realise you were visiting Lindisfarne in a professional capacity, Mr Ryan.”
In other words, Ryan thought, word had spread that he had slunk across to Lindisfarne like a wounded animal. He wanted to resent the lack of privacy but the eyes which assessed him were kind.
“Seems I’ve had enough rest and relaxation, Dr Walker,” he deliberately kept things formal, sending a telling glance at what lay behind him. “I’ll be the Senior Investigating Officer in respect of the death of a girl who has been identified as Lucy Mathieson. Her body was found just under an hour ago. In the absence of a pathologist, we’d be grateful if you would confirm life extinct and provide us with any other preliminary medical observations.”
The doctor followed his gaze.
“Lucy?” he shook his head sadly, his jaw sagged and tears burned his eyes. “I helped to bring that girl into the world.”
Ryan and Phillips stayed silent. There was nothing they could say.
“Her parents will be devastated. There must have been a terrible accident…” his voice trailed off.