Katerina Diamond - Woman in the Water

He spotted a group of women gathered by the riverside wall. As much as anything, it was a strange time of day for this kind of gathering. The sun was barely up. They were looking over towards a small muddy offshoot of river that ran through the thickets. There was something about the way they were talking to each other that made Adrian pull the car over. Brows creased, they turned towards him, eyeing him suspiciously before turning their attention back to something on the other side of the wall.

‘Everything all right?’ Adrian said, pulling his warrant card from his pocket and showing the women.

Their faces lightened immediately and one of the women stepped forwards. She scrutinised his ID before speaking.

‘There’s something in the water. The kids were out playing on that patch of grass last night. They kept saying how there was someone in the water and this morning my two maintained they saw a dead body down in the water before they came home – had nightmares because of it. We thought it was part of their game last night, you know what kids are like. We can’t really see from here and none of us want to climb the wall to go and check. There’s something there but it’s in the shadow of those bushes. It could be anything.’

‘Why didn’t you call the police?’ Adrian asked.

‘I don’t know if you’ve got kids, but they can be known to tell the odd porky. I asked the girls if they would come with me and look, but there are so many bushes we can’t see anything clearly.’

‘Where?’ Adrian said, walking up to the wall and looking over into the riverside shrubbery.

The light was terrible and so he would have to climb over to take a closer look.

‘Can you see that blue thing?’ The same woman who had spoken pointed towards the left side of the greenery.

Adrian put his card back in his pocket and hoisted himself over the wall, trying to make it look effortless – he had an audience, after all.

The drop on the other side was a little lower and he just managed to save himself from embarrassment when he fell by placing his hand on the ground as though he were a superhero who had fallen from a great height. Anything over four feet was a bit too high for Adrian. It wasn’t like he was trying to impress anyone, but he wanted to avoid any humiliation, as this could all end up in a police report, depending on what he found in the river.

He took his phone out of his pocket and switched on the torch; the sky had adopted a grey-and-orange hue as the sun hid behind the houses. The blue thing in the bushes looked like denim. It was obscured and could just as easily 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.