My mind drifts back to the metal claw hammer being brought down mercilessly on the body again and again.

‘Thank you for your time, professor. I don’t suppose you have his current residence or a contact number?’

He contemplates this before turning on his computer. He quickly locates the information I have asked for and scrawls it on a Post-it note which he had retrieved from a drawer on his table. He hands it to me, leans across the table and shakes my hand, before getting to his feet.

As he moves around his desk to lead me to the door, Liam re-enters. He gives me a look that signifies he has news. When out of earshot, on our way back to the car, he shares the content of the phone call. Another body has been found.

14

‘What’d he say?’ Liam enquires as I lock the mobile phone and throw it onto my lap.

‘He says he has no plans for tomorrow and to let him know when we are on our way.’

Liam nods and looks appreciative at Ed’s flexibility. I tilt my head and rest it on the cold glass of the window, gazing with unfocussed eyes at the passing grey of the city centre buildings, preparing my mind for what’s coming next.

I wonder what state the waiting body is in and if there is a link between this body and Anna’s. The twinge in my gut tells me there is.

My thoughts turn to Anna’s mutilated body, found on the ice only seven days ago. Such a waste of a life. I think about how many people her murder has affected; a loving family, a close group of friends and all those people who only knew her because of her films and glossy magazine covers, people she’d never met yet who still adored her.

Rory’s appearance at the book event last night comes swimming into my mind and I begin to wonder what the purpose was. Is he genuinely a man grieving for his murdered fiancé who just wants an answer, a sense of closure? Or was it simply for show? Did he do it so that, if he is convicted somewhere down the line, he has this public performance as a reference point of his grief? A long sigh escapes my lips as we inch along with the rest of the city centre traffic.

As we pass the angular Crowne Plaza hotel, Liam slows to a crawl and tries to locate a suitable parking space, to no avail. A stationary car in a bay behind us suddenly indicates as if to leave and Liam, noticing this, waves in the air, inviting him to go around our car.

The man in the car raises his hand, thumb and forefinger almost touching, signifying a lack of space. Liam swears under his breath and takes off at speed, circling the hotel and, in no time, arrives back at the same spot where the car is creeping out of the space. Liam swears again and, when the car has just about vacated the bay, he manoeuvres in hastily, as if to show the man how it should be done. We are now a few streets from the waiting body. Liam locks the car with a beep and we walk down Shudehill towards the centre of the city.