He’d just about finished looking the site over when a call came in on the team’s line. Hanson was immersed in something on-screen, headphones in and eyes following some video, so Lightman picked up and found himself talking to the duty sergeant.

‘I have a caller. He says he’s the dead man’s husband.’

Issa Benhawy, Lightman remembered from Hanson’s brief update.

‘Put him through.’

There was a click, and then a very precise voice asked, ‘DCI Sheens?’

‘This is DS Lightman,’ he said. ‘I work with the DCI. He’s just tied up, but perhaps I can help?’

‘Oh, I see.’ There was a pause, and then Issa said, ‘I just wondered about Alex’s things. I don’t want them getting lost.’

‘I understand your concern.’ Lightman pulled his notebook closer and clicked his pen out. ‘We do label and store everything carefully during enquiries, so everything will be kept safely and returned to you as soon as possible. Was there something in particular …?’

There was another pause, and Issa said, ‘There’s a ring that I gave him. And – and his phone.’ When Lightman didn’t immediately reply, he added, quickly, ‘It’s full of photos. I don’t want them getting lost.’

‘Of course,’ Lightman replied, writing carefully in the notebook. ‘With the phone, it’s hard to say exactly when that will come back. Our tech team won’t delete anything, but phones often reveal a lot about who’s been in touch with the victim.’

‘I can help you with that,’ Issa said, immediately.

‘That’s very good of you, but there might be people you weren’t aware of.’

There was another silence, and then Issa said, ‘All right. Just … be careful. With the photos. And please don’t pry into our messages.’

‘It’s never our intention to do that,’ Lightman said, gently.

Once Issa was done, he wrote another sentence in his notebook.

Particularly anxious about the phone and their messages.

And then he underlined it.

Alex Plaskitt’s life turned out to be quite a public one. He had more than three hundred videos uploaded to YouTube, all of them dedicated to helping people achieve a healthier lifestyle. He had twelve thousand subscribers, and clearly used the account to drum up business.

Hanson had started with the most recent video, from a week before. Alex appeared immediately, his head and shoulders visible on the camera and some kind of fitness studio setup behind him.