She leaned back in the armchair, took some of the deep breaths she had just prescribed and checked her messages, but there was nothing new and her working day was done. She handed over to Luke, filled him in on a couple of patients, and put her phone in the bottom of her bag.

Sam returned with her drink, settled into his own chair, and said, ‘I’m not going back to midwifery school.’

Thirty-Two

‘Simon?’

‘Adam . . . hi. News for me?’

‘I haven’t written it up yet but I know you need this asap. Liam Payne. There looks to have been enough heroin in him to kill him twice over, even though he was a long-time user, so his tolerance would have been pretty high. That in itself doesn’t tell us any more than we knew, except that Shenfield had estimated a lower dose. But the way the syringe was inserted, the way it was positioned when the body was found . . . we started asking a few questions. Tentative, mind you, but worth putting to you. This is a bit speculative but we tried a mock-up and for my money the stuff might have been injected with another, different syringe and into the opposite arm.’

‘What?’

‘The veins in both arms were in a poor state but those in the left arm were pretty much shot to pieces, he’d have had a job getting the needle to hold. They were a bit better in the right but there were clear signs of very recent needle penetration in there. Now it would be difficult to inject your right arm efficiently with a syringe held in your left unless you were left-handed.’

‘He wasn’t.’

‘Certain?’

‘It was one of the questions his sister answered.’

‘Then maybe someone else injected him and possibly it was done elsewhere and he was brought to the flat and dumped there.’

‘Someone shoved a needle in to make it look –’

‘Self-inflicted, yes. But I know your guys found no indications of a body being dragged in.’

‘Nothing. So the floor could have been cleaned – the staircase as well. Shit.’

‘Listen, at the end of the day, I don’t think I could put my name to a cast-iron conclusion. I can’t say it is certain that Liam Payne did not inject himself with the overdose of heroin and overwhelmingly likely that someone else killed him. But the exhumation was justified because, in my opinion, there is room for reasonable doubt. Whether that’s enough for you to start a murder investigation I can’t say.’

‘But meanwhile, there are more question marks over Shenfield’s conclusions.’

‘I’ll type up my report – it has to be checked and signed by my colleague because of the circs so it won’t be with you until very late tonight, maybe even tomorrow morning depending, but I’ll do my best.’

‘And no authorisation for reburial yet.’

‘No.’