‘Let’s get started, everyone,’ I said. ‘First, good news. The fire brigade has inspected the soup shop through the openings where the windows were, and only found one gas cylinder. It has already exploded, which probably contributed to the ferocity of the blaze, but it means we no longer have an explosion risk.’

A wave of relief swept through the team.

‘We have a tentative ID on the male victim. Simas Gudelis, age forty-two, originally from Lithuania. He was co-owner of the shop with his wife, who says he was ill in bed.’ I paused for breath. ‘We have no ID for the woman, who isn’t his wife.’

The next board had ‘VICTIMS’ as its heading. Here, we had multiple image sources for Simas: social media, the shop website and the ones from the fire officer. We only had the low-resolution photographs of the female.

‘We need to prioritise identifying the woman so we can notify her next of kin and consider who may have wished her harm. Have we had any calls?’ I’d only just briefed the media but I couldn’t help hoping we’d had news.

‘Nothing yet. And no matches on the MisPer register.’ I saw the concern on Dan’s face. ‘She could live alone or work away a lot? Sometimes it takes a while to realise someone’s missing.’

‘True. Another possibility is that she has dependents at home. This could help our chances of someone calling in or it could create additional risk factors.’ A terrible thought occurred to me. ‘If she’s got someone old or young at home, they might not be able to look after themselves. That bumps the need for her ID even higher up the order of priority.’ My brain was snatching at possible solutions. ‘What’s the situation with the facial profiler?’

‘She can’t make much progress because of the lack of detail on the photographs.’ Dan spoke quietly.

‘OK. Our other priority needs to be getting the bodies out of the building. That’ll be done the moment the building is deemed safe to enter. Then we can get better quality images, do a more specific media appeal, process DNA samples and search dental records.’ I approached the board and took in the woman’s wax-like features. It was impossible not to be reminded of my brother’s appearance after the fire that killed him, although our victim had more flesh intact than Sabbir’s charred bones. I swallowed down the dull thud of pain which the memory stirred, and took the cap off one of the marker pens to jot on the board.

Victim 2 (UnSub)

-Lives alone?

-Homeless?

-No family vs. dependents?

-Asylum seeker?

-MisPer?

‘Dan, I think you’ve got information on motives?’