‘Control took a call about two hours ago, from a bloke who lives up there on the third floor. He passes this flat every morning on his way to work, and today he noticed one of the windows was smashed.’ He pointed to the pane in question, now covered with cardboard and crime scene tape. ‘The property’s been empty for a couple of months, and the window was fine yesterday, so he thought squatters had got in. He checked the front door, it was open, and he found a young man lying on the living room floor. He shouted at the guy to clear out, but there was no response. That’s when he noticed the kid’s eyes were wide open.’

‘And …?’

‘He called it in.’ Aaron rallied. ‘He’s prepared to give a statement.’

‘I should hope so. Where is he now?’

‘At home.’ He pointed at the third floor. ‘He was pretty shaken up; said he wanted some time to pull himself together.’

‘Fair enough.’ She jerked her head towards the ground-floor residence. ‘Did you look inside?’

‘No. The bloke managed to shut the door behind him when he came out and it locked. I had to hang on till SOCO got here, and then the lead pathologist said I had to wait.’

Hawkins gave him a hard stare and looked up at the flats. ‘Have you spoken to anyone else?’

‘Absolutely. I went door to door in this block, and the one down there. Not many of these old properties are occupied. Apparently, the council’s trying to clear them out so it can knock the whole estate down. I got a few residents out of bed, but none of them remembers seeing anyone near the flat since the last tenants got moved in October.’

She nodded. ‘What about CCTV?’

The sergeant grimaced. ‘Not so good. I spoke to the local control room. There’s coverage planned for the new flats, but that won’t be connected till after Christmas.’ He waved at the main road. ‘There are a few cameras out there, but nothing within a hundred yards of this turn, and the trees obscure things, too. I asked for a week’s worth of footage regardless, but it’s a busy road, so we’ll have our work cut out.’

‘Get a team on it, anyway,’ Hawkins instructed. ‘If we can find the victim arriving, it’ll narrow the window we have to search for whoever killed him. Anything else?’

‘Actually, yes.’ Aaron drew himself up, which meant he was about to try impressing her, and motioned at the four other vehicles spread around the small car park. ‘I asked everyone I spoke to whether they recognized these motors, and they’re all owned by locals except this blue Renault.’ He pointed at a battered Clio. ‘I’m waiting for an ID on the registered keeper.’

‘Good work.’ She turned towards the flats. ‘Let’s go in.’