With the suspects again cloistered with their lawyers, Chandler’s thoughts returned to the earlier revelation. But ringing Teri to discuss it would do no good and he wasn’t about to rehash it with Mitch.

Seeking a distraction he left to visit the forensic team who had taken over the town hall a few hundred metres down the street. The cracked, red-brick building looked like a warehouse with decorative windows. It hadn’t seen this much action since the recruitment drives at the end of the Second World War when there had been a heated discussion on whether the town should be sending people off to fight another world away. That time it had ended up in a small riot, with the part-time mayor, part-time publican ‘Rolling’ Harry Winter, using the ceremonial chains as a makeshift lasso to drag the worst of the rioters away. This one act had made all the papers and secured Harry another ten years in the job.

As Chandler stepped inside, suspicious eyes trailed him everywhere. It was only after he flashed his credentials that he was pointed towards the officer in command, Rebecca Patel, her demeanour painfully formal and ultra-clinical. Perfect for the job.

‘What do you have?’ asked Chandler.

‘Have? You’ll need to be more specific, Sergeant.’ Dr Patel wasn’t one for time-wasting.

‘Anything further on the bodies – on identifying who they were?’

She shook her head at him as if he were a small child who had asked her to summarize the meaning of life in five words or less. ‘It’s too early to tell anything as specific as that, Sergeant. We’ve only got preliminary results so far.’

‘Preliminary’s good enough for me.’

She raised her eyebrows. Dr Patel was a woman of little humour, as colourless as her smock, but Chandler supposed that she had to be in her line of work; meticulous in dress, meticulous in approach.

‘We’ve identified the victims as four males and two females, all aged between twenty and forty, but that initial prognosis might alter for at least two of them. All were clothed but no ID was present. Currently we are working on recovering dental imprints in case that gives us something straight off. Initial tests reveal no signs of sexual interference. Importantly, and as I’m sure you are eager to know, all the victims look to have been strangled with rope. Ligature marks are visible on all the bodies, nothing subtle or unique about the application, just pure force.’

‘That was preliminary?’ Chandler smiled, searching for an ounce of humour.

Rebecca gave a simple nod. ‘There’s nothing more I can or want to divulge right now. We’ll prepare the report in good time. And can I ask that you don’t leak anything to the press that might have to be rescinded at a later date when we have sight of the full results.’