It took fifteen minutes, but Rainy managed to find a solicitor from the Crown Prosecution Service who was at police HQ for another matter. The South Asian-looking woman agreed to leave her meeting for ten minutes to assist them. She looked at a printout of the contract and agreed that it was extremely strange. She backed up Rainy’s interpretation of the word corporea. ‘Do you have the codicil, the legal appendix referred to?’ she asked. ‘That would certainly shed further light.’

‘No,’ Rainy said. ‘There don’t seem to be any of the other documents here.’

‘Hmm. There’s an unidentified third party referred to, the supplier. It could be a funeral home or crematorium I suppose, though I have to admit it would be an unusual contractual arrangement to go through a third party.’ She looked at her watch, and said she had to be getting back to her meeting.

‘The third party, is that Charon?’ Hoskins asked, as she started to walk away.

‘Yes. Now that in itself is interesting,’ the lawyer said. ‘In Greek mythology, Charon is the ferryman of the dead. He carries the souls of the newly deceased across the River Styx into the underworld.’

Gillard thanked her, and turned to look at the other two detectives.

‘The ferryman of the dead! It’s no’ P&O and that’s for sure,’ Rainy exclaimed.

‘Yeah,’ Hoskins said. ‘Roll on, roll off, roll over and die.’

Gillard rolled his eyes. ‘Rainy, ask the Taiwanese if they have any more related documents. I’m going to get Rob to investigate the Dutch firm.’

Suddenly Rainy gave a sharp intake of breath. ‘I wonder if the man knew he was dying. That might explain everything.’

Gillard looked at her quizzically.

‘Dr Delahaye’s post-mortem report mentioned a huge tumour in the man’s liver,’ Rainy said. ‘Delahaye assumed that he wouldn’t have known, because liver cancer can get quite far before you notice it. But maybe he did know. Maybe he was making arrangements in advance.’

Gillard conceded that this was an interesting new angle. ‘Why come to Britain to do it though? Was there some special requirement?’

‘Maybe the Oxford conference,’ Rainy said.

Hoskins leaned back in his typist’s chair with his hands behind his head, and yawned. ‘So are we really talking about a funeral firm that squashes people to death? And then takes it upon itself to squeeze a particular murderer who has just been released from prison?’

‘Yes, I admit as a theory it doesn’t exactly hang together. At least not yet,’ Gillard said. ‘But I’m sure Charon, ferryman of the dead, has the answers.’