‘One more thing; Dan said there was a boathouse, and it looked in use. He asked about CCTV but she zipped up again. We’ll have to wait for a warrant.’

‘To get to the north shore from anywhere on Ullswater you’d need to moor a boat at Glenridding or Pooley Bridge; check their jetties,’ Kelly said.

‘Sure thing,’ Kate said.

‘I’m at the hospital car park now, I’ll see you later.’ Kelly ended the call. She parked in the multi-storey and took a ticket, and made her way to the mortuary.

Chapter 32

The steel interior of the Penrith and Lakes hospital mortuary looked like a chop house. Gurneys were wheeled in and out at a rate of a handful every hour, and Ted felt as though he was deluged with body parts and reports. Every limb, crushed vertebrae and mashed skull needed recording and examining, and matching to any other body parts that were brought in in separate bags, then meticulous DNA testing would identify them in time. Whole intact corpses were few. The bodies of the pilots and Kennedy-Craig were complete, though badly burned. His work was to try to collate as much information as possible to identify every casualty so they could be returned to their families for a last farewell. As well as to confirm how they all died.

Specimens, in various states of integrity, were at different stages of examination all over the mortuary operation room. Assistants, dressed in green scrubs, gloved and masked, worked silently and diligently, and to some kind of process, though it wouldn’t seem obvious to anyone off the street.

It might seem manifestly plain to rule that they had all passed away as a result of a tragic helicopter accident; however, it was Ted’s job to find what nobody else could: anything out of the ordinary that might solidify the case in the coming weeks, and Kelly knew he was thorough. He’d worked on major accidents before. Road traffic pile-ups were the worst. The injuries were pretty predictable, but occasionally he came across something that could only be explained by human culpability.

He had several students from Carlisle University Hospital working with him all week, because there was nothing quite like the opportunity to learn from a disaster, such as war or an accident; it was where most leaps in medical knowledge had been made through the ages.

Kelly walked into a hive of activity that looked like the back stage of a horror movie set. She scrunched her face and wrinkled her nose, sniffing the Vicks she’d smeared under it. She spotted Ted and went to him. He looked up and nodded his greeting, stopping speaking to a group of three students to introduce her.

‘Everybody, this is Detective Inspector Kelly Porter. She’s in charge of the inquiry into this tragedy. She also happens to be my daughter.’