Ripples emanated from where the divers were pulling out the black bag. I stared at in incredulously, it was obviously a body bag and a full one at that. As head detective inspector at the local police station the whole village would be looking to me to figure out what had happened. I looked away from the sight and stared out over the lake at the far away trees. I watched as some kids jumped off a jetty into the icy water and shivered knowing full well what had been in that water only seconds before. But they were too far away to have noticed the commotion. Why did this have to happen on my first day as an inspector? I couldn’t think about that now.

I walked over as they unzipped the material to reveal the pale dead face of the missing person we had been looking for for days now. Her eyes were white as they stared unseeingly up into the sky. An image swam before my eyes of her mother, when I’d last seen her only 12 hours before she had clutched my hand and begged me to find her daughter and bring her home. I didn’t know if I’d be able to bear seeing her again as I’d have to convey the news that would destroy her.

I took another look at the scene in front of me and then released the body to be taken back to the lab. There was no point cornering off the area as there would be no evidence at the bottom of the lake that the divers hadn’t already discovered so I just told the crew to do one final search and then pack up. I went back to the station and stared at my crime board, which was blank. There was no evidence, leads or suspects at the moment so the only thing I had left to do was inform the family. This was one of the times I hated being a detective.