Further back, Aaron and Chris were propped close together against one of the desks. Chris’s unkempt bird’s nest of blonde hair probably resisted all but the most pedantic styling, whereas Aaron’s dishevelled mane was often lucky to see a shampoo bottle, let alone a brush. Despite their sober business attire, both men looked as if they had stopped for a quick tug of war contest on their way in. Such tousled kinship, along with similarly laissez-faire personas, probably spawned the alliance Hawkins had feared would develop. If Chris was going to be around for a while, Hawkins would have preferred him to bond with Amala, maybe even Frank on a good day, although Aaron’s attitude had definitely improved in response to her concentrated attention in recent months.

Neither man spoke.

More distressingly the final member of her meeting also remained mute.

The presence of Simon Hunter, their resident psychological profiler, had become mandatory when the three bodies were found simultaneously two days ago. The forty-three-year-old consultant had spent twenty years in the force, honing an uncanny knack for deciphering the impulses of the insane and deluded. The fact that protracted service had neither dampened his youthful demeanour nor greyed his shock of black hair, meant he’d found his calling.

Under modern procedures, any situation where three or more victims were killed by a suspected single party required a profiler’s involvement, and Hunter had helped in just about every major investigation since Hawkins’ ascension to DCI. Hunter’s aptitude for decoding the mindsets of prolific serial killers was almost legendary, but so far, he’d offered no answer to the question Hawkins had just asked.

Why would anyone murder three victims with a defibrillator?

What had changed was the atmosphere among her team. The details of the case remained largely unaltered, of course. Yet now the perpetrator’s method had been determined, the faceless enemy was starting to take form; a tangible adversary with an as-yet-undefined motive.

But definitely with intent.

Until now, a question mark had hung over the investigation – the possibility that these victims had been subject to some kind of anomalous misfortune, maybe even complicit in the prelude to their deaths. But now they had confirmation that someone had stood over each man, wielding the power to end life, which necessitated the involvement of planning – premeditation.

And whoever it was, not only had they chosen to use that lethal equipment, but they had actually set out to kill.

That simple fact introduced a more disturbing dimension, by confirming that at least one person, currently unknown, had forcibly taken three lives. The same individual had likely organized every facet of the murder scene, carefully considering their MO, their own arrival and exit, as well as those of the targets themselves, to obscure as many clues to their identity as possible.