‘Yeah. A right arsehole.’

‘It’s his case, his area. I want you to stand by. If we get any more details I might want to crash in on it.’

Lewis looked at the photos spread out on the desk: ‘Are you thinking maybe it’s the missing angel?’

‘Maybe.’ He held out a file, and stood up. ‘Get this Anna Travis on the team.’

‘What, the rookie?’

‘Yep.’

‘She’s never been on a murder team.’

Langton shrugged himself into his coat. ‘Her father was Jack Travis. Maybe taking on his penpusher of a daughter will be good karma.’

He stopped at the door. ‘Anyway, rate we’re going, we might not even have a case. If the chief puts them all on file, we’ll be stuck with a skeleton team until they’ve all been shelved and sent over to the dead file warehouse. G’night.’

‘Night.’

Lewis returned to his desk in the incident room and dialled Anna Travis’s number.

By quarter to eight the next morning Anna Travis was sitting in a patrol car speeding to the murder site. Although all she had been told was that she was replacing an officer on sick leave, Anna was excited to be finally working in the field for which she had trained so hard.

With Anna in the patrol car were Lewis and another seasoned detective, DC Barolli. Mike Lewis had square shoulders, and a body running to fat. His round face and red cheeks gave him a look of perpetual good humour. Barolli was smaller, with dark, Italian looks but an East London accent.

As they drew up to the Clapham Common parking area, she noticed the presence of the forensic van, and numerous unmarked cars. Although police cordons allowed no one but officers entry, an exception was made for the catering van which was already in place and serving pies and sandwiches to the teams setting up the base.

What surprised her was the lack of a sense of urgency. Lewis and Barolli went straight from the car to ‘Teapot One’ to get some coffee. Unsure of the procedure, Anna just hovered nearby. When she looked further across the common towards the yellow ribbons cordoning off the car park, she could see white-suited forensic officers moving around.