Tidelands: II-One (18)

Failed Parachute.

[Caucasian. Adult female. Twenty years of age (estimated). 5 feet 3 inches tall (estimated). Facial recognition: inconclusive.]

Because she has none – a face; or not much left of one. Tentatively, Percy picks up one cold hand, cocked at that unnatural angle, flung out as if in one final flamboyant gesture. He selects a finger and examines its nail.

[Degree of post-mortem cyanosis of the nail bed suggests—]

“This your first jumper, Inspector?”

[—a time of death somewhere around 03:15 this morning.]