‘Miss Lunn said she’d been very rude to her on several occasions. Foxley was always apologetic and explained that his ex-wife was in psychiatric care. Frieda had met his daughter a few times but said that when the daughter was on holiday from school she would stay with her mother or grandmother.’

There was a tap on the door and Paul Lawrence walked in carrying a takeaway coffee.

‘We’ve just about wrapped up at the murder site, sir. I’ll need to go back to the lab for a couple of hours to double-check on progress.’

He sat down and glanced towards Jane and Spencer as he opened his briefcase.

‘I spent a considerable amount of time with the pathologist and together we have put together a timeline of events. The assailant was in the basement flat. There must have been some altercation, which resulted in a frenzied and brutal attack. We know the cricket bat was Foxley’s as his name is scrawled on one side. There is blood spattering by the front door, which could have been caused by the bleeding from the nose and mouth. Foxley then fell forward and was dragged down the hallway and into the bathroom, bleeding profusely from his head wounds. The second weapon, an old-fashioned cut-throat razor, was found in the bath. Foxley’s body was possibly hauled up by his hair – we found a considerable amount of hair around the bathtub. When he was positioned over the bath his throat was cut. There are blood spurts on the tiles, the bath and the walls. The body was dragged into the master bedroom, Foxley was then positioned spread-eagled on the bed, and he was disemboweled. According to the pathologist, a third weapon was used – a very sharp serrated knife, around ten inches long and two inches wide. As you know, this weapon has not been recovered.’

As Lawrence talked, Tyler brought out the photographs he had held back while Spencer had been eating. Jane slowly moved through one photograph after another.

‘Was he stripped of his clothes in the bathroom?’

Lawrence sifted through the photographs and pulled one out that showed a blood-soaked shirt and a pair of corduroy trousers.

‘I think the victim was unconscious and his assailant stripped him, as you see on photograph fourteen, down to his white underpants and white socks. We found his shoes in the bathroom, along with his bloody clothes. I would say he was stripped before his throat was cut. There are numerous fingerprints, some in blood, some possibly left from a previous occasion, which would say that this was not the first time our killer had been in that flat.’

Tyler gathered up the photographs and stacked them like a pack of large cards, before sliding them into a large brown manila envelope. Lawrence did likewise with the photos he had brought.