She got herself together to brief him, introducing herself again as Sergeant Taylor, then explaining that two of her team had responded to a call from a security guard doing his rounds. All were still inside. Joel could see another marked police car and a small white van marked Security – Dog Handler. They were the only cars in an otherwise empty car park. There was a general feeling of desolation. An even smattering of weeds surrounded a squat office block like they were planning an assault. The only clue to the building’s previous use was the name of an engineering firm that appeared as a stain on the brick frontage and seemed to stand out more in the damp. Joel started for the building, aware that in another hour or so the light would be gone completely.

The sergeant led the way towards the only entrance he could see. The door scraped loudly and the sergeant had to use some of her body weight to force it. He followed her up concrete steps and down a long, poorly lit corridor. Everything was uniform – the style and colour of the doors, the font used to identify individual rooms, even the redundant strip lighting overhead that passed like a cheap cartoon where the background repeated itself. The only thing to stand out was the flickering of a light high up at the end of a long corridor on the second floor. The sergeant made straight for it. This door was open. The first thing Joel saw was a uniform officer directly in front of him who quickly stepped out of the way to reveal the reason why there was a Sunday roast going begging at his home.

‘Well … he made a right mess in here,’ Joel said, voicing his instant reaction as he took in the seated corpse in the centre of the room. Some office furniture was scattered untidily around the outside, like it had been hastily dragged out of the way to clear the space. This was the corner office so there was a row of windows and blinds on two sides. The blinds on the east side looked to have been ripped away from the windows in a fit of violence. They were still attached at the bottom and dripped down to bunch up on the floor. On the north side the blinds had been left in place to shiver as a breeze rushed through an opening.

‘He did. He left us a note too. Thoughtful.’ The sergeant gestured at one of her officers who held up a clear evidence bag. The note inside was typed out in block capitals, the words grouped together in the middle of the page. Joel took it to read.