Now the roof sagged and the front door hung crookedly from its hinges. The shattered windows glared like blind eyes, those on the front of the building ringed by the black stain of smoke. A firefighter in helmet and tunic raked through the broken glass and smoldering debris littering the pavement. Hoses still snaked inside from the brigade engine, along with cables from the utility lorry.

The building and the surrounding area had been cordoned off with crime scene tape. Pedestrians milled outside the barrier, a few sporting the telltale notebooks and cameras of the press. A sole television van remained, waiting, Kincaid assumed, for the removal of the body and a statement from the police.

Well, they could wait a bit longer, but he’d have to deal with them eventually. Speaking to the media was a necessary part of a senior police officer’s job, but he didn’t particularly enjoy it. Giving a brief thought to the tie he’d put on that morning, a loud Liberty print Gemma’s mum had given him the previous Christmas, he shrugged and smiled to himself. Maybe he’d set a police fashion trend.

As they neared the warehouse entrance, Kincaid saw a uniformed firefighter with an Alsatian dog. Beside him stood a tall man wearing a firefighter’s tunic over civilian clothes and a woman in a suit and tan wool coat. The tall man Kincaid pegged as a member of the Fire Investigation Team, and there was something in the woman’s bearing that marked her unmistakably as CID. There was a tension in their postures, as if they’d been arguing.

“You’ll be Scotland Yard, I expect,” said the tall man, turning towards Kincaid and Cullen with an air of relief.

Kincaid introduced himself. “And you’re-”

“Fire Investigation Officer Farrell, Southeast FIT,” the man acknowledged. He was balding and bearded, with a lined, intelligent face and eyes that seemed narrowed in a permanent squint, as if he’d spent too many hours poring over minute fragments of evidence. “I was just telling Inspector Bell here that we’d wait until you arrived to view the scene – the less disturbance inside, the better. My team and the Home Office pathologist should be here any moment.”