‘All OK, Chris?’ Grace asked.

‘We’ve found two laptops and two iPads – I’m having them bagged and sent over to Digital Forensics. Any chance Mr Paternoster would oblige us with the passwords, do you think?’

‘That will be a good test of whether he’s going to cooperate. If he won’t give them, it might indicate he has something to hide – I’ll make a call. And we’d like to take a look around if you’re happy, Chris? I want to get more of a feel for the place, but if you’d prefer us to stay outside, I’d understand.’

Gee smiled. ‘You’d both be welcome, sir. You came here earlier today, so I don’t think we have to be worried about contamination from either of you. I’ve already had a quick look round and there’s no obvious sign that any section of the carpets have been cleaned recently. There are two tiled areas, the kitchen and en-suite bathroom floors – if you could avoid walking on those for the moment, sir. We’re taking a close look at the kitchen where the attending officers earlier noticed recent cleaning and saw fresh blood – which Mr Paternoster blamed on cutting his finger on a potato peeler.’

‘Of course,’ Grace said.

The bathroom, in particular, was where a lot of domestic murders happened, because the killers thought they were easy places to rinse away and wipe clean any bloodstains. But, Grace well knew, what many murderers did not realize was that most bathroom tiles were very slightly porous. You could wipe the surfaces completely clean of bloodstains, but if the tiles were lifted, there was a high probability of finding that some small amounts of blood had seeped through them. Which was why he always encouraged his Forensics Team to dig up floor tiles and check their reverse.

The plugs, drainage and U-bends were also often areas of rich evidence retrieval. The other key place to check for blood was the outer surface of the sinks – offenders would often carefully clean the inside, but forget the outside area.

At least the press and media hadn’t yet picked up on what was happening, he thought, relieved – although it wouldn’t be long, for sure. The press and blowflies – both could smell a dead body from miles away.

Trailed by Branson, he followed Gee’s footsteps across into the hall, along the track that had been laid down to the kitchen door. A Forensic Officer in full protective clothing was kneeling by the sink next to an open cupboard door, pulling out the contents of the rubbish bin one item at a time with gloved hands, examining each carefully before placing it in a bin bag on the floor beside her.

‘Checking the bins,’ Gee said. ‘After that we’ll work on the surface of the floor tiles then dig them up and look at the flip sides. Is there anything in particular you’d like to see while you’re here?’

‘I’d like to take a good look around the living room and the master bedroom,’ Grace said.