‘Thank you.’ Barrett nodded and set off leaving Palmer to tell Roy he should go back to the lane and get himself checked out by the ambulance. Roy, who was only too happy to put as much distance between himself and the dead body, agreed and returned to their meeting spot. The rain was beginning to fall again.

It took the inspectors a few minutes before they found what they were looking for. Barrett stopped, holding his torch up and lighting the scene. It was something out of a nightmare.

‘Jesus,’ Palmer whispered under his breath when he caught up with his boss.

Stepping closer only made it more real. The head of the victim was caved in on one side, pieces of smashed bone sticking out of the skull in peculiar angles. The smallest finger on the right hand had been removed and the chest was a bloody mess of cut flesh.

The victim’s eyes were bulging and bloodshot, staring out over the lake.

‘Have you ever seen anything like this before?’ Palmer asked Barrett.

‘I can honestly say in all my years on the force this is the first time I’ve encountered anything like this.’ His words were tainted with horror and morbid fascination.

‘He looks like he’s been here a while.’

‘Agreed,’ Barrett said, carefully stepping closer to the corpse and shining the light on the chest. ‘Get them to cordon off the area. I don’t want anyone else disturbing the scene.’

‘The rain will have washed away a lot.’

‘But we need to salvage what we can, Joe.’ Barrett didn’t want to acknowledge the fact that so much evidence would have been lost.

Grateful to be leaving the corpse, Palmer returned to the officers who were making their way along the path and gave them their instructions, just as Bob Roland and his team joined them.

‘Evening,’ Bob said through his surgical mask. ‘What do we have here?’

‘Looking like The Hangman has struck again.’

‘Righto. Didn’t take him long.’ Bob snapped his nitrile gloves on and followed the path around the lake to join Barrett who stayed with the body.

‘Ian.’ The men shook hands. ‘Any idea who this might be?’

‘It’s Eddie Kilpatrick. He went missing two days ago.’ Although the body hanging from the tree looked far from human, Barrett knew the man had once been Eddie.

‘Any links to the previous victims?’ Bob asked.

‘That’s what we are trying to establish.’ Barrett watched as Bob slowly circled the body being careful not to step in the bloody puddle below it. ‘What is it?’ he asked, finally acknowledging the strange look on Bob’s face.

‘See here?’ Bob pointed with a gloved finger. ‘These cuts. They don’t look random. I think something has been carved into the skin.’

Barrett took a tentative step towards the body and cocked his head. Bob was right. It looked like letters.