The Body on the Beach

Pulford was slowly dying. Years ago there was hardly room in it's tiny harbour for all the fishing boats but suddenly, for no good reason, the fish stopped coming. Many people left and like the fish, never came back. That was when the village started to die. It was a funny thing, but until Fowler came to Pulford, he had never seen a dead body - he had never known real fear.Life is very quiet down in Pulford. Usually in this farming community, the most exciting call during the week would be to investigate the death of a bovine - which is what constables Beaumont and Clark were on when they got the call about dead man's body found on the beach. It looked like he had fallen from the 200 foot cliff. A dead man, aged about 40, with a face lacerated as if it had been whipped by barbed wire and his right eye ripped out. It was found to be the oil geologist, Aldridge.