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There was hardly a breath of air to be had. Given he was standing on the beach near the base of the cliff, he would have expected the usual stiff breeze coming off the water, cooling his face. This was of little concern to Alec Hardy though, since he was there on official duty. Thankfully not a murder this time as far as the initial findings by SOCO were concerned though. There had been a report of a person missing at sea after falling from a boat, so this looked like an accident. Well, hopefully – Natalie Wood and all that.
Thankfully the body of the woman was found early in the day before too many people got to the beach, as the condition she was in when she was discovered would have lingered in the mind of those less experienced in dealing with these things. Water rots the body, after all.
As he trudged back to the car park he thought again about his reasons for coming back to Broadchurch. He really shouldn’t have missed the place, with its small-town mentality, and everyone in each other’s business. But returning to Sandbrook wasn’t the homecoming he expected. Everyone had moved on, including him. It just took going back there to see it.
So here he was. Back in the DI job he never thought he would have again. He even made the odd clumsy attempt to get along with his workmates. He still wasn’t convinced they liked him, of course, but he thought that maybe they at least respected him a little now.
He caught sight of the distinctive orange coat as Miller walked towards him from the car park. One thing he was glad for was that she agreed to come back to Broadchurch after the trial. This was her home, and he could see that she was happier for being back. It was taking time for things to get back to normal after the trial, but solving the Sandbrook case gave her the confidence she needed to face the future here.
Maybe it wasn’t just the place he missed. She understood him, probably better than anybody else, and she also didn’t put up with any nonsense from him. She was probably the closest thing he had to a friend nowadays. Not that he would ever tell her that. Still, she made him a little lighter. A good enough reason to return?
Yes, he reckoned so.