Detective Inspector Amelia Pond walked down the beach towards the small body lying in the sand. "Don't do this to me again." She prayed under her breath. She turned to see a woman running towards the scene. "This area is off limits!" She blocked her off.
"I'm police!" D.S. Oswald displayed her badge. Her eyes widened at the sight of the body. "I know him. He's my boy's best friend. God, Beth! Does beth know?"
"Calm down D.S. Oswald." Pond took hold of Clara's hands.
"You don't understand! I know that boy!" Oswald couldn't hold back her tears any longer.
"Shut it off and be a professional!" Amelia yelled. "You're working a case now!"
"Shut it off?!" Clara took a step back away from Pond's reach as if disgusted by her cold and clinical attitude.
"Amelia Pond" She extended her hand towards her colleague.
"I know who you are. You took my job." Clara replied.
"Oh, are we really going to do this now?" Amelia Pond looked Clara up and down with her hand on her hips.
"You don't even know who he is!" Clara gasped for breath through tears.
"Then tell me!" Amelia had zero patience for her new partner's emotional sensitivity.
"Daniel Latimer, age 11. He goes to school with my son, Tom." Clara wiped the tears from her cheeks.
Amelia looked up at the cliff face in front of them. "Is this a suicide spot?"
"He wouldn't do that." Clara replied.
"Just answer the question!" Amelia shot back.
"No." Clara whispered angrily. She'd not only lost the job she'd wanted but it had been given to the most heartless woman she'd ever had the displeasure to meet.
Pond had a harsh tongue as fiery as her red hair. But there was no discernible warmth about her whatsoever, she was a stone-cold pragmatist. She was beautiful but untouchable, like a wild rose covered in thorns.
Clara was soft. She believed in kindness and the goodness of people. Even as much as D.I. Pond had angered her by her coldness, she wished to get closer to her. There had to be something good inside her. At the same time, Clara wished she could prove herself. Amelia Pond was chosen for the job she'd been asking for. She just swooped in and took the job, she wasn't even from Broadchurch.
"I know the people here. I know how to talk to them." Clara spoke as they drove towards the Latimer house to deliver the terrible news.
"How many murders have you worked on?" Pond gave Oswald a harsh glare.
"This is my first." Clara looked down at the ground as she spoke.
"Let me handle this... and don't look at me like that." Pond snapped when she noticed Clara's big brown eyes glaring back at her.
To Clara's surprise, Pond spoke to the family with a bit more sensitivity than she had expected. There was a heart in there after all. It was obvious that Pond was there to help but she wasn't there to be friends with any of them. Clara could hardly control her tears as she quietly shook her head yes to confirm to the boy's mother what they'd seen.
Beth Latimer was a young mother, like Clara. Beth had both her children before she turned 20. She was petite and pretty in a simple sort of way. Her painful sobs at the news of her young boy's death hit Clara too hard for her to conceal her grief. She couldn't just shut it off like Pond did but she believed it was her connection to the people that made her the right detective for the case.
Clara stayed behind with Beth while D.I. Pond led the boy's father to the station to I.D. the body. "I'm so sorry, Beth." She took the grieving mother's hand in hers. "I know there's nothing I could ever say or do to make this better or easier for you."
"Just catch the bloody bastard who did this to my little boy." Beth whispered angrily.
Clara wrapped her neighbor in a big warm hug. "I promise."
The detectives headed back to the top of the cliffs above where the body was found to discuss SOCO's findings. "It looks like the rockfall around the body was faked." Brian explained. "The angle of the body's all wrong, too well arranged. Someone tried to make it look like an accident."
The death was obviously a murder and not an accident after the coroner's information came in. Danny had been strangled by a man and he was facing his attacker when it happened. There didn't seem to be any other thing on the boy's body besides a small cut on his hand. They feared sexual violence but there wasn't any indication of it. Even still, parents worried a mad predator was on the loose. And in a small town of 15,000 that would very well be the friendly neighbor next door. There was a palpable sense of paranoia in the air but Pond and Oswald were on the case.
Clara wished to better connect with her new boss and decided to start the next day at work on the right foot by offering Pond a fresh cup of coffee.
"I don't drink coffee." Amy passed right by Clara, hardly acknowledging her.
Clara tried her best to hide the heartbreak but she couldn't help but get down on herself. She was everyone's friend in the office. She was bright and cheery and everyone seemed to love her. Deep down there was always a fear that no one did, so she always overcompensated. She ran around aiming to please everyone at all times. Her bubbly personality masking a rigid control freak.
"Oswald! In my office" D.I. Pond called out. "Alright, Oswald. I walked Danny's paper round and there's a hut on Brier Cliff about half a mile from where Danny's body was found. Find out who owns it and get the CCTV from the camera there." Amy gave Clara a look for a moment. "What are you doing? Go!" She shooed a doe-eyed D.S. Oswald away from her office.