His hands shook as he unlocked the padlocks on the outside of the garage. He quickly closed the outer door behind him and opened the one to the inner lab. Once in, he closed the door behind him and sighed. A coughing fit seized him as the smell assailed him, and he groped for the light switch, holding his breath. His mind whirred as he desperately tried to figure out what the hell was going on. The roof vents were open.

The room was stripped completely bare except for two naked bodies, one on top of the other, flies landing on the bloated parts and dancing in the blood. Alex sank to his knees and looked into Emily’s eyes. She stared straight up, her mouth open as if in ecstasy at her lover’s prowess above her. Mike’s body straddled hers in an obscene embrace, and Alex knew that the scene was staged.

He bent his head and a sob escaped from his mouth. His dear friends had been abused and their bodies defiled after their lives had been snuffed out. He couldn’t look at their injuries.

Adrenalin shocked his body into action and clarified his brain. He took one last look at the corpses of the colleagues with whom he’d shared so much time, knowledge, love and laughter. Then he wiped his eyes, stood up and flicked the light switch off. He left both doors slightly ajar before running as fast as he could away from the garage. He wanted justice, he wanted revenge, but he wouldn’t get it hanging around waiting for the police to turn up. It would take them weeks to ask questions and wait for lab results. He knew how these things worked. He’d started in forensics many years ago. He’d be the prime suspect, and he was pretty sure that George was dead too. No, the only way to get what he was looking for was to command the scene from afar, electronically. He had all he needed.

He couldn’t go back to his flat, but he didn’t have to. He drove to Bethnal Green Road and dumped his car outside Kentucky Fried Chicken. Then he walked to the Tube station and took the Central Line to Holborn, changing to the Piccadilly Line for Heathrow, where he bought a one-way ticket to Larnaca. Perhaps he’d make poor Aphrodite’s funeral after all.

Chapter 6

Kelly called her father.

‘Can I hitch a lift with Cumbria’s most eminent semi-retired coroner?’ she asked.