‘We did something similar at that warehouse fire in Shoreditch a few months back.’ Terry was showing Simon the images on his phone. ‘D’you remember?’

‘OK,’ Simon said, his voice heavy with resignation and apprehension. ‘Let’s do it.’

Fifteen minutes later, and after careful manoeuvring by the lift operator, the fire officer was finally able to see into the room at the top of the house where he’d seen a body. I held my breath as he was lowered from above, where the roof had been. They had to move the lift at a painfully slow pace so that the cage and crane arm did not disturb the building structure. There was nothing above him to fall, but the walls were difficult to assess. Other than the instructions of Simon Chapel, the site was quiet. Until—

‘Hey,’ a voice shouted. ‘Why is he looking at that side of the building?’

We all turned and saw Indra, rake thin and ashen.

‘Our bedroom is on the left,’ she shouted. ‘Not that side.’ She bolted over to Chapel. ‘He’s got the wrong room. Simas isn’t in that room. Our bedroom is this one.’ She was pointing, jabbing the air urgently, her arms stick-like in the parka.

I followed her over to Chapel and relayed what the officer had seen when he looked through their bedroom window.

‘The floor collapsed? Where is he then?’ She glanced from me to Dan, and I could tell that the realisation was dawning that something wasn’t right. ‘Why would he be in the spare room?’

I was racking my brain for things to say. I wasn’t sure why Indra was bothered which room her husband was in. ‘Perhaps Simas went next door to sleep? Maybe he went in there to fetch something and got trapped by the fire?’ I could see Indra wasn’t convinced.

‘He never sleeps in there.’ She began gabbling in Lithuanian to her sister.

‘Hold it.’ Chapel put his hand up to signal that the medical officer was relaying some news to him via a headset.

‘He’s coming out. He says he can see—’ Chapel broke off abruptly. His face fell. ‘Inspector, can you . . . ?’ He took hold of my elbow and steered me away from Indra to the side of the building. ‘Bad news, I’m afraid.’ His voice was hushed. ‘Andy says there are two bodies in there.’

‘Two?’ I was absorbing the implications. ‘Can he see whether they are male or female?’

He was nodding. ‘One’s definitely male. The other one looks like it’s female.’ His eyes communicated possible interpretations of what they’d found.

Shit. Poor Indra. ‘Is he sure?’