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more animal prints, other than the dog that made the discovery this morning, probably foxes.”
    “Can you tell if the body was moved?”
    “There are no drag marks, and nothing to suggest he was brought here any other way other than walking here. We’ll compare the soil samples taken here with the soil on the shoes later just in case. There’s some soil in his nostrils which suggests he was breathing whilst he lay here so it is likely the death occurred in the spot where he fell.”
    “He fell? So it may not be foul play?”
    Hammond had automatically presumed that the death was the result of an attack. The absence of a wallet suggested a motive of robbery. But now he realised that the torn clothes and blood could have been due to foxes post mortem.
    “I won’t give you a definite answer, not until I can get the body back for a thorough examination, but I will hazard a guess that this is due to foul play or at least misadventure with another person.”
    Hammond looked at him with anticipation. “Really?”
    “There are traces of semen on his hands”.
    “So you think maybe the death was accidental, that a sex game went wrong, and his lover panicked and dug a grave?”
    If someone had dug the cavity as a grave, they did so quickly and without attention. It wasn’t deep enough to conceal a human corpse, being no deeper than two feet deep. If it had happened spontaneously, it was unlikely they had anything to dig with. The only tools being branches to loosen the soil and their hands to scoop out the debris. This would be too time consuming and too risky. Although the site couldn’t be seen from the main path, it wasn’t far enough from it to be completely hidden, especially if someone wanted to avoid the mud and walk up the bank.
    “I can’t answer those questions; that is your job. I can only tell you what I find on the body. The hole was undoubtedly already here, there are no fresh soil mounds to suggest it has been recently dug. (Other than where the dog was this morning).”
    He tutted and pointed to claw marks that burrowed into the depth of the depression towards the underside of the body. “There is too much insect activity beneath him from what I can tell so it is likely he fell into the hole following a surprise attack.”
    Hammond thanked him, he knew it was pointless to ask for a time of death at this stage of investigation but wanted an estimate. “Can you give a time of death?”
    Hammond was surprised to see Ed Henderson smile.
    “There’s fixed lividity on the right side of the body and full rigor mortis...”
    Henderson’s eyes appraised the body in front of him. “The bad weather would have affected the decomposition rate and the temperature of the body but I would guess between twenty to thirty hours ago. Any longer than that and the muscles would have returned to their flaccid state, which isn’t apparent here yet. I am not going to give a definite report at this stage. You have an idea to help you start enquiries but be patient. I will call you when I have the full picture.”
    The watch on Hammond’s wrist showed it was now 8am Tuesday, which would mean that the victim had been attacked any time between 2am on Sunday morning and lunchtime on Monday. It had rained heavily throughout the night on Sunday, but had been dry earlier throughout the day. Typical for mid November, it got dark around 4.30pm, an hour later and it would be virtually impossible to see anything in the woods. It would certainly be too dark to attempt to hide a body leaving no trace. It would be too risky, there was a chance that if something had fallen from a pocket of the attacker, or if they had accidently left something behind, there would be no way of reclaiming it at that time. If there had been a meeting in the woods between the victim and a friend, it was logical to assume that it would have occurred during the day of Sunday or Monday morning in daylight. Hammond looked to see if Henderson could give any