“The knot was placed over the back of the neck. The cable was doubled, looped twice, which isn’t so unusual when using a thin material like electric wire. But, again, you could consider it a signature of sorts. Other than that, there’s very little I can tell you at this stage. I’m not sure the blood tests will turn up anything more. In your email you asked if he might have had any recent contact with a young woman, sexual or otherwise. I’m not seeing any evidence he had close physical contact with anyone other than a possible assailant. Certainly no evidence of recent sexual activity.”

Even though it had begun to rain, Taylor walked back to work along the river. She needed to think before she got there.

Rory Bannatyne was most probably killed. That meant she had an issue. There was no way of keeping the murder of an officer localized; it was big news, demanding a big investigation. It would have to go to Skinner first. She didn’t relish that meeting. Then perhaps the chief himself. How would the conversation go?

So you think he might have been killed? And then framed?

All I have so far is this.

Are we aware of any hostile parties on the island?

No.

And what about this missing girl?

That bit’s not clear.

What preparations were made in advance of the operation proceeding? Was Rory Bannatyne the best man for the job? Do we know much about him at all?

Taylor thought back to the morning when Mackenzie had assigned her to the South Atlantic desk. She’d been called in to see him, first day back from sick leave. She’d thought he was going to fire her, but he said he wanted to see a more enlightened approach to trauma in the service. That was the box in which he’d put her experience, which was okay with Taylor. He said: Be open with me. That’s all I ask. We can’t afford to crack in private.

Taylor watched the river. She passed people taking pictures, kissing, living their lives, and wondered why she had been assigned the clandestine work of preserving this peace on their behalf.

The office was still mercifully quiet. Taylor opened her safe and found the report from the Ascension Island police concerning Rory Bannatyne’s suicide. She read it again, trying to see it as a murder. If the same person killed both Rory Bannatyne and Petra Wade, how did the sequence of events play out? Say Rory had been killed, transported to the antenna, strung up to look as if he’d been hanged. At some point the girl was killed too and disposed of by other means. Without knowing the island, Taylor couldn’t move toward any more certain hypotheses, no matter how many maps and photographs she studied. Only someone there could assess the logistics.