At least she had been able to at one time, but Dani hadn’t been to a mortuary for over two years, and as she opened the door to the examination room and spotted Paul Reeve’s dissected body on a metal autopsy table, the wave of nausea that passed over her almost took her off her feet. It was a good job Fletcher had assigned DS Langdon to attend the actual post-mortem that morning.

‘DI Stephens,’ Ledford said, turning around from where he’d been scribbling notes into a ledger. ‘You’re looking a little green.’

‘I’m fine. You said you had some results.’

‘You just missed Fletcher actually,’ Ledford said, looking at his watch. ‘I thought maybe she or DS Langdon would have given you the results, but I know you said you wanted me to talk through the findings in person. It would have been easier to brief you all at the same time, but so be it.’

‘Sorry. I was out on other business. And I didn’t know Fletcher was coming.’

‘But you told me I needed to speak to you both about this matter? So I called you both.’

‘Yes, that’s fine. So you’ve carried out procedures on both bodies now?’

‘I have. I don’t have full toxicology results on the male yet, but we do know a lot more. Come and have a look.’

Ledford led Dani over to the autopsy table and she looked down at Paul Reeve’s now stitched-up body. His skin was as white as the sheet that was dangling off the end of the table. His glass-like eyes stared up at the ceiling.

Now he was all cleaned up, the two knife wounds – one to his side, one to his belly – were clearly visible. The edges around them looked thick and protruded like they were plasticine wounds that had been stuck to him for special effect. Ledford reached across and swiped away the sheet that covered Natalya’s corpse on a metal gurney next to them, and Dani winced as she looked at the similarly cut-up remains.

‘Both victims died from, to put it into layman’s terms, massive blood loss.’

‘Exsanguination,’ Dani said.

‘Yes, very good, DI Stephens,’ Ledford said, clearly not that impressed with Dani’s knowledge. ‘Paul Reeve’s injuries were more severe, and it’s likely that he was dead within a minute or so of being stabbed. As well as massive blood loss from the two wounds, this wound here, in his gut, severed the abdominal aorta, which is what I mentioned to you about the young woman the other day.’

Ledford poked and prodded at the wounds as he spoke and Dani held back the urge to gag. Ledford looked up at her and must have noticed her squeamishness. He gave her a clear look of disapproval.

‘As for the young lady’s injuries…’

‘Natalya,’ Dani said. ‘We think her name was Natalya.’