'Is this Louise Pennel?' Anna asked.

'Yes, but what's happened to her mouth?'

'It has been cut,' Anna said, giving the nod to the mortuary assistant to recover Louise's face.

Sharon spent two hours with Anna and Morgan answering their questions. She gave them a few names, but was sure Louise had no steady boyfriend. She also said that Louise wanted to get into modelling like her, which was why she had so many photographs. One in particular that Sharon showed them was heartbreaking. Louise was wearing a red, glitter-sequinned minidress, a glass of champagne in one hand and a red rose caught in her hair. She had the sweetest of smiles, her lipstick a dark plum. Her large, dark brown eyes were heavily made up and she had a small uptilted nose. She had been a very pretty young woman.

The Incident Room was buzzing with the news that they had an identification, giving the whole team an adrenalin rush. They had been so frustrated, waiting for their first break. Now she was identified, they could kick-start their hunt for her killer.

DAY SIX

Morgan was back at his desk the following morning at seven-fifteen. A priority was to interview the dental surgeon Louise had worked for. Morgan was busy listing everyone he wanted to see that morning when Anna walked into his office with a copy of the Mirror.

'Excuse me, sir; have you seen this?'

'What?'

'Second page.'

Morgan reached across to take the paper. He sat down heavily. 'Fuck. How did they get this?'

'Must have got it from Sharon; she had enough photographs. We put out so many requests for help in identifying Louise, no one would have thought to ask Sharon not to go to the press.'

Morgan sucked in his breath in a fury. The article said little: just that the victim the police were trying to name was Louise Pennel. There were a few sentences about how Sharon, her flatmate, had identified Louise. There was a picture of a scantily dressed Sharon, but the main photograph was of Louise with the red rose in her hair.