Cottesloe didn’t reply but began to hum the tune.

Wickens checked his watch, and sighed. ‘CSI won’t be able to set up a tent, will they? They’ll just have to lug him aboard the boat and into a body bag.’

‘That’s right. No dignity or decorum for him, whoever he was. Poor sod.’

The call from the uniformed inspector brought them back to the group. A search for evidence along the shoreline. Wet feet guaranteed.

Detective Chief Inspector Craig Gillard was the overnight on-call detective. It was almost seven o’clock on the Saturday morning and, as he prepared to finish the shift, he reviewed the incident log: domestic abuse resulting in an arrest in Redhill, criminal damage at a car park in Woking, two road rage incidents and an aggravated burglary. No stabbings. He’d spent much of the evening on the Redhill case. The woman knocked unconscious by her partner, but so far refusing to press charges.

Averagely busy for an overnighter. But quiet by Midsummer Night standards.

One new report had come in since he last checked at four a.m. A body found washed up on an island in the Thames at East Molesey. It had already been transferred to the mortuary at Kingston Hospital. The CSI initial report included some rather graphic photographs. The man’s face was an extraordinary puffy purple, his eyes wide and bloodshot with swollen eyelids. It almost looked like one of the masks worn by the Indian Kathakali dancers he and Sam had gone to see a couple of weeks ago. The poor woman who found him must have been given a terrible fright.

After reading the CSI report Gillard rang Yaz Quoroshi. The CSI chief would be able to give him a heads-up if this death was an accident, or suspicious and thus likely to turn up in his in-box. After they’d greeted each other, Quoroshi said: ‘I’m no forensic expert, but something terrible happened to this guy before he fell or got chucked in the water. The cyanosis is so extreme. I’ve never seen anything like it.’

‘Any ID on him?’

‘Nothing. Stark naked. If you’ve seen the pictures, it’s obvious he’s Chinese or some other East Asian. To me it looks like a case of massive high blood pressure. Maybe there’s some kind of drug abuse that does this to you, but if there is it’s not something I’ve ever come across.’

‘Well, it was Midsummer Night. People do a lot of strange things at the solstice, including consuming a lot of strange things.’

‘That’s certainly true.’ Quoroshi laughed. ‘One other thing – I’m sure Dr Delahaye will be fascinated by the strange impressions left in his flesh. It looks like the guy got trapped in a fishing net.’