It was just a few days later when everything he thought he knew about himself was to be tipped upside down. Now, when he lifted the phone to his ear, he was riddled with something that had become a new familiar: doubt.

‘Hello?’ The phone was answered almost straightaway.

‘DS Andrews?’ Joel said.

‘Yes. You must be Inspector Norris. Ma’am Marsden warned me you would be calling.’

‘Good to hear. Did she say what for?’

‘An update, as best as I have at least.’

‘What do you have?’

‘A body. And for once I can say that quite literally. It would appear something’s removed the head.’

‘Something?’

‘CSI say a “jagged instrument”. I took that to mean a saw rather than the edge of a piano.’

‘I think you’re probably right.’

‘And boss, it doesn’t look like it was mechanical, that is, not a chainsaw or a disc cutter. It’s a real mess … Someone did it by hand and it took a while. That’s significant, isn’t it?’

Joel took a moment. ‘I think it must be.’

‘CSI explained in great detail how difficult that is, how determined you would need to be to saw a man’s head off … It takes a certain sort of person to work CSI, doesn’t it?’ There was nervous laughter.

‘It certainly does. So, someone was very upset with our victim, upset enough to go to a lot of unnecessary effort.’

‘Unnecessary?’

Joel used his free hand to rub at his face. He turned back towards his house to look through the large glass doors and straight into his kitchen, to where his youngest daughter had appeared, spinning and dancing with a balloon trailing from her hand. Even from here he could see the joy on her face. The colours were vivid under bright lights and she stood out on a gloomy day. He was very much back in this world now – back in with both feet.

‘If you’re sawing up a body it’s normally for practical reasons. To hide it, transport it, make it easier to get rid of. This sounds more symbolic,’ Joel said.

‘They certainly didn’t do a good job at hiding it. Our offender must have pushed the body into the sea when the tide was coming in. It might have taken it along the coast a little but it’s always going to end up washing back up on the beach. It wasn’t in the water for long.’

‘The mistake of an amateur or he was meant to be found?’ Joel was thinking out loud, and the DS must have recognised this as he ignored the question.

‘CSI put his prints through the lantern and they came straight back. He’s known to us.’

‘Go on?’

‘Marcus Olsen. Convicted paedophile.’

‘That gives us a possible motive. What were his convictions?’

‘Possession of images only, but he was convicted on two separate occasions.’

‘Contact offences?’

‘None.’

‘Any named victims?’