‘You think it was a fall, a push, or…’ Mark didn’t need to finish. He never liked the S word. It felt wrong, somehow. ‘I mean, was any evidence found on the roof of the building that could give any indication?’

‘No obvious signs of a struggle or someone being held against their will, if that’s what you mean. Doesn’t mean that didn’t happen though. Could have been cleaned up in an attempt to hide the truth. Forensics are going over the rooftop as we speak. The building is over fifteen floors high. She lived on the fourth floor. Seems an odd place to find yourself, that far up.’

‘CCTV in the building proving useful at all? Does it cover much of the inside?’

DI Bennett hummed an agreement. ‘Lobby and entrance. And lifts. We’re going over the footage now. Her phone had a few missed calls, but that was it. They were all from her family. We’ve spoken to one of the other students who said she tried knocking at her room last night, but when she didn’t get an answer, she just assumed she had earphones in.’

‘No easy answers from me, boss,’ Mark said, moving his hand to the back of his head and massaging some life into his neck. ‘All I can tell you is that even if Emily is involved, I doubt you’ll get far with the family. All they can say at the moment is that she was “troubled”, whatever that means. There is one more thing though…’

‘What’s that?’ DI Bennett replied.

‘I spoke to the youngest kid earlier. Just before we had to leave to go to the Royal to identify the body. He said something about the uncle, which is an avenue we really should consider alongside all of this. He made a comment that if something had happened to Emily, then we should possibly look towards him. And there was something about Emily getting attention, implying that maybe the uncle had been giving her unwanted attention. Which would make him a much better suspect than Emily herself, if you know what I mean?’

‘This is becoming more convoluted by the minute. At the moment, we have nothing to tie that in with the actual dead woman we’ve found. So, if something was happening with the uncle, that might be secondary?’

‘Possibly,’ Mark replied, turning the thought over in his mind to see how it fit. Realised quickly that nothing did. ‘Something to consider down the line, maybe? Always best to be ahead of the game, I suppose.’

‘You’ve been on this twenty-four hours now,’ DI Bennett said finally, after a few moments of silence. ‘Setting the other death to one side, what have been your initial thoughts – the disappearance, intentional or not? What do you think about this family?’