Harper felt her blood run cold. She thought of Gregor’s mother, how she’d disappeared so suddenly just after they moved in. And how, when the neighbor had knocked to ask about it, “Gregor” seemed to have forgotten who the neighbor was.

“I’ve been inside the apartment. We both have. There was no smell, no sign.”

“No. There wouldn’t have been. The bodies had been preserved, much like the finger was. They’re trying to work out what the process was. It might help us identify the killer.”

Preservation. A deliberate act. The murderer had really thought things through.

“Can you identify them?”

“Forensics are working on it. They say they should be able to reconstruct the face of the male, make a computer simulation and compare it with the passport image we found, but I have a strong suspicion—”

“It’s Gregor Franks. The real one.”

Joanna walked a little way down the path in the direction the boat she suspected Ruby was aboard had gone. The silence out here was unnerving, especially for a city girl.

Atkinson said, “One more thing. They found a bottle with traces of … hang on, I’ll read out the description. “A cocktail of liquid paracetamol, diamorphine, Valium, and GHB.” This was in an unmarked bottle in the bathroom. Take a spoon of that, you’d be out for a week. Take two or three, you might not wake up.”

“Do you think that’s what he’d taken?”

“I’d say it’s likely. Though I don’t know if he took it on purpose.”

Joanna could see that she’d been right all along. If Ruby had given the man a head injury—and if she’d dosed him up with that stuff—then it was for a very good reason indeed.

“You’re not safe up there, boss, not with him on the loose. This man is a killer. There are two bodies already, and the finger, the drugs—all indicating further crimes. And there’s Constance, throwing herself into the sea—I know we haven’t found her body, but it looks most likely that she drowned herself just to get away from him. That kind of man wouldn’t think twice about attacking a police officer.”

“He wouldn’t think twice about attacking a woman and a little girl, Steve. I have to keep looking for Ruby and Leonie.”

“You can’t do it on your own. It’s too dangerous.”

She ended the call.