‘In the light of that information, I’d hazard a guess that he was killed ten days ago,’ Jonah replied promptly. ‘You know this isn’t an exact science, Ian, but I would say it was unlikely to be much less than ten days, due to the state he’s in. So there you go, I was able to help you after all. That makes me feel a lot better. Not that it makes any difference to our friend here,’ he added, prodding the body irreverently.

Ian watched Jonah’s actions with a scowl of distaste, but Geraldine smiled.

‘So we have a rough time of death. Can you do some more of your magic and say where he was killed?’ Geraldine asked.

‘Would you like me to give you the address?’

Geraldine grinned. ‘Yes please, along with the name of the killer and where he or she is now.’

‘I can tell you that Jason definitely wasn’t killed where he was found. He was lying on his front when he was discovered, but fixed lividity shows he was lying on his back for a few days after he was killed.’

Jonah pointed to a large area of dark discolouration on the cadaver’s back.

‘In addition to which, insect activity in the body is in the very early stages, which might seem to contradict our estimated time of death.’ He picked up a container. ‘Look.’

Geraldine stared more closely, and was barely able to make out a few tiny white dots in the liquid that resembled floating grains of rice.

‘The eggs indicate he was definitely outside exposed to the elements for less than, say, ten hours, confirming he was dumped there sometime on Sunday night. If he’d been there any longer than twenty-four hours, these eggs would certainly have hatched into maggots. But given that he was dead for longer than a week previous to being deposited in Mr Dexter’s garden, he must have been left on his back in a protected environment, in a fairly well-sealed location where these little parasites couldn’t get to him.’ He gestured to the blowfly eggs. ‘Someone was keeping hold of the body, storing it somewhere. Now why would anyone do that, I wonder?’ He wrinkled his nose. ‘Probably not to admire him. He’s not a pretty sight, is he?’

‘Presumably they were holding on to him until they thought it was safe to move him,’ Ian said.

Geraldine wondered whether that suggested a period of reflection after Jason’s death, meaning that his death had not been planned as carefully as the aftermath.

‘How did he die?’ she asked.

Jonah smiled. ‘I thought you were never going to ask. Now here’s something I can help you with, at last, with a fair degree of certainty.’

Turning to the body, he indicated a patch on the back of the head where the skin had been cut away to reveal a shattered area of the skull.