Search of the Cliff Cove and Discovery of the Bloodstained Stone

The search of the cove beneath the chapel on Combe Island turns a hazardous descent into a potentially important recovery: Francis Benton-Smith finds a hand-sized stone caught in a remnant of surgical glove, with a reddish mark that may be blood. The discovery gives the investigation a possible physical link to Nathan Oliver’s killing, but not yet a proven weapon or an identified assailant. Its significance rests both on what the object appears to be and on the careful, exposed process by which it is found and preserved.

The Search and Its Stakes

Kate Miskin brings Jago Tamlyn and Francis Benton-Smith to the headland with climbing equipment after deciding that the object they seek may have been thrown over the cliff near the chapel. The buggy stops about twenty yards from the chapel so the ground around the scene is not disturbed. From the lower cliff, the searchers assess a descent of roughly eighty feet to a cove without a beach, where stones and boulders crowd against the rock face. The tide is coming in quickly, making the search a race against a shrinking strip of exposed shore.

Jago initially remains silent. When he asks Francis whether he is Hugh Benton-Smith’s grandson and receives confirmation, he agrees to help without further delay. He knows the cliff intimately and takes charge of the equipment and route. The exchange establishes a personal connection between the two men, but the scene gives no explanation for Jago’s question; its immediate consequence is practical, as he now guides the descent and climb.

The recovery is part of an inquiry in which the apparent hanging of Oliver has already been challenged by medical findings. Professor Glenister estimated that death occurred between half past seven and nine in the morning, probably nearer the earlier time. Raimund Speidel, who had arranged to meet Oliver in the lighthouse at eight, arrived at six minutes past and found the door locked. Glenister’s later conclusion was that Oliver died of asphyxiation by manual strangulation and was hanged afterward. She also reported a fracture in the thyroid cartilage and a bruise at the back of the neck, consistent with the force described in her examination. Against that background, a stone that may bear blood could matter as evidence of violence, though its appearance alone cannot establish how it was used.

Descent and Recovery

Francis prepares for the descent in climbing gear, while Kate hands him search gloves and an exhibit bag. The familiar routine of harness, rope, and belay brings back the physical memory of climbing after more than a decade away from it. At the cliff edge he leans backward into space; the rope holds, and the initial fear gives way to the exhilaration of controlling his descent. The narrative makes the search depend not on an abstract investigative hunch alone, but on a demanding bodily action that could end in an eighty-foot fall if the belay failed.

At the bottom, Francis searches carefully across sea-smoothed rocks and pebbles. The tide runs over the outer rocks and into the pools, progressively reducing the area available. He is looking for a heavy stone small enough to hold, and the abundance of similar stones makes the task uncertain. Near the cliff edge, he notices what appears to be a scrap of litter on a shore otherwise described as untrodden. It proves to be a small, egg-shaped stone partly enclosed in the remains of a surgical glove. Most of the thin latex has apparently torn away; one finger and a small piece of palm remain. A reddish stain on the stone does not look natural to him and appears to be blood, but this is an initial visual assessment, not a laboratory identification.

Francis places the stone and glove fragment in the exhibit bag, seals it, ties the bag to the rope, and signals to Kate above. She receives the package while he and Jago begin the return climb. This transfer preserves the object as an exhibit and brings the find out of the rising water; it also separates the first observation of the stain from any later forensic confirmation.

The Climb Back

The return is not a simple repetition of the descent. Jago tells Francis that he can lead the climb, describing it as steep and exposed but protected at the crucial moves. The difficult section is an overhanging roof above a crack, with a piton positioned before it. Francis had not expected to lead, and he suspects Jago has controlled the arrangement from the outset, but accepts the order rather than arguing. With the tide already breaking over their feet, delay would carry its own risk.

Francis climbs by testing each hand- and foothold, placing protection in cracks, and clipping the rope into runners as he advances. At the roof, he reaches around for holds above and swings briefly into the air before finding balance and securing himself. Once past that crux, the rock offers good holds to the top. He emerges exhausted, and Kate approaches with visible relief. Her congratulations mark the release of the tension built through the climb; she then turns away, unwilling to show him what the strain has done to her. Francis fixes a belay and prepares for Jago to follow, completing the recovery as a joint operation rather than a solitary act of discovery.

Evidential Meaning and Limits

The event contributes a possible weapon and a glove remnant to a case already complicated by handling and contamination. Earlier, Jago had rewound the lighthouse rope and returned it to its hook at Rupert Maycroft’s request, leaving it accessible to anyone who might tamper with it. Investigators recognized that this compromised the rope as evidence, and the later examination found that someone had attempted to wipe it along its length. The object from the cove is distinct from that rope: its value depends on examination of the apparent stain and the surviving glove material, not on assuming that either alone identifies the killer.

The subsequent search of Puffin Cottage produces separate biological exhibits concealed beneath butter: a phial labelled with Oliver’s name and date, and a sample of hair wrapped in tissue. Kate Miskin and Francis photograph the concealment, recover the items, seal them in an exhibit bag, and sign the label. These later findings broaden the material inquiry, but they do not by themselves establish a connection between the cottage samples and the stone recovered beneath the chapel. The cove search matters because it converts a dangerous stretch of shoreline into a controlled evidence scene: the suspected object is located under pressure from the tide, packaged, and brought back for testing, while its meaning remains provisional until further analysis.