Jane could hear Tyler saying that it looked possible that the body was Charles Foxley and that Justine Harris had been removed from the premises by uniformed officers as her car was holding up the traffic. They would, however, still need to get a formal identification, as the woman was so hysterical, he couldn’t let her near the body.

‘Listen, if I hadn’t dragged her out, it looked as if she wanted to give him a kicking.’

‘Tennison is here, guv. Do you want her over there?’

‘Not yet. As soon as we are able to move the body, I want you both here. There’s enough traffic here at the moment. In the meantime, you and Jane see what you can find out about the victim. I want uniform assistance to start house-to-house inquiries ASAP.’

Spencer switched off his radio.

‘Did you hear that? Charles Foxley, theatrical agent. Let’s get started.’

It was another two hours before the pathologist gave permission for the body bags to be brought in and the SOCOs could start assisting Paul Lawrence. He had a specialist in blood pattern analysis and two back-up scientists to focus on the bathroom, the hallway and the bedroom where the body had been found. It appeared that the victim had been attacked first in the hallway. The weapon, a cricket bat, was already bagged and tagged to go to the laboratory. Judging from the blood spattering on both sides of the hallway, it was possible the victim had then been dragged into the bathroom. There were blood-soaked clothes, torn into shreds, and an open cut-throat razor left in the bath, with deep blood pooling around it.

The trail of bloodstains suggested that the body had then been taken into the bedroom, where a silk bedspread, carpet and pillows were also soaked in blood. The victim was wearing only pants and socks, and attached to his right wrist was a closed handcuff, the other cuff lying loose.

*

Jane and Spencer, alongside the rest of the team, began to gather as many details as possible, bringing in civilian staff and a couple of probationary officers to assist them. They were now working on the assumption that the victim was the successful theatrical agent Charles Foxley, even though no formal identification had been done yet, since the body had been found in his residence. Justine Harris, it turned out, was his ex-wife. DS Lawrence had asked the team to check with BT urgently to discover what last numbers Foxley had called from his home phone.

Tyler came out of his office to enquire how much progress they had made. Jane glanced at Spencer as he turned over page after page of his notebook.

‘Well, sir, we were informed that he had offices in Wardour Street and a substantial list of television actors. The company name is Foxley & Myers.’