Anna moved along to the board to look at the other photographs. Side by side were six photographs of victims. Beneath them were descriptions, locations and ongoing enquiries. These women’s faces were hard and old compared to Melissa Stephens, with tough-eyed stares.

‘Are these all ongoing cases?’ she asked Lewis.

He did not hear her as he was talking to Barolli, who had just arrived.

Anna continued reading. Each of the victims had been raped and strangled and their bodies dumped in various local beauty spots: Richmond Park, Epping Forest, Hampstead Heath. All of them had their hands tied behind their backs and they had all been strangled with their own tights.

‘The victim this morning and all these victims — are these ongoing cases? I mean, are they connected?’

Barolli came over to join her. ‘Hasn’t anyone filled you in on why the governor got us out of bed so early this morning?’

‘No. I was just called at seven to say I’d be joining Langton’s team. Nobody’s told me anything about the enquiry.’

‘You’re replacing Danny, aren’t you?’

‘Mike mentioned he was in hospital.’

Barolli indicated the victims’ photos. ‘This investigation has been going on for months; six months to be precise. Five of the cases are years old. Their cases were left on file, until the gov dug them up.’

‘Six months?’ she said, shocked.

‘Yeah.’ He jabbed the board. ‘This was our most recent victim and by the time she was found, she’d been dead over a year. We started grouping them together a few months back: they’ve got the same MO, as you can see.’

‘You mean it’s the same killer?’

‘We think so, though so far we’ve come up with fuck all. But if the stiff found this morning is connected, we might get some leads. There again, we might not and we won’t get the case. The gov is really wanting it as we’ll be bound to get more evidence with it being fresh.’