Dean stepped forward and took hold of the dog’s collar. He pulled her away from the hole that she had dug. She whined in protest but eventually accepted defeat and lay down with her head on her paws.
‘Have you found anything?’ Dean called to Gavin.
‘I think so.’ He held up a small creamy-coloured object. ‘I think this is another piece of bone.’
He got down on hands and knees and started digging in the soft soil with his fingers. It was slow work and he could feel Star’s resentful gaze on him as if to say, ‘let me do it. I’m better at it than you!’
Dean waited, wondering how long this was going to take. It was time they were getting home.
‘Oh my God!’ Gavin stood up and beckoned Dean to come closer. As he peered down into the shallow trench that Gavin and Star’s combined efforts had excavated, his heart gave a lurch. That round shape with black, earth-filled eye sockets was not part of an animal skeleton; it was a human skull!
‘OK,’ Gavin said from behind him, business-like now that this was clearly a police matter. ‘You’d better get back and take the kids home. Tell Chrissie that something’s come up – work – and she should go home too. I’ll make my own way back later. Don’t talk to anyone about this; we’ve got to preserve the scene until the forensics people have been over it.’
For a few moments, Dean stood transfixed, unable to take in what he had just seen. Then he nodded and turned to go back, jerking the lead to let Star know that she should follow him.