Rhona began taking her own series of photographs. Once a crime scene was disturbed they could never recreate it. So everything they captured now was important.

‘Ready?’ she said, when finished.

On Chrissy’s nod, Rhona caught the corner of the blanket and slowly peeled it back, hearing Chrissy’s intake of breath as the victim was revealed.

It was a youngish woman. What was left of her hair indicated it was light-coloured and of shoulder length. She was petite and slim, her shoe size, Rhona thought, a four or five.

From the pattern of burning, it looked like the petrol had been poured over her head.

Fire burned upwards and, in this case, it had had time to destroy much of her face. But the blanket had saved other parts of her body from deep burns, including the main torso and the thighs. Rhona checked out the hands, to find no burns to the palms.

‘So she didn’t try to put the fire out,’ Chrissy said.

‘Or she didn’t start it.’

People often held the mistaken belief that fire would destroy everything. Including how someone had died. It didn’t. Just because it looked like a self-immolation didn’t mean it was one.

Her clothing appeared to contain natural fibres, which had added another layer of protection to the skin. Natural fibres didn’t shrink or burn easily, whereas synthetics shrank and bits dropped off, damaging the skin beneath.

‘What’s that?’ Chrissy pointed at something protruding from below the body.

Moving to hunker down there, Rhona carefully extracted the item, which turned out to be a handbag. It appeared unmarked, suggesting it was leather and not a plastic equivalent.

Rhona opened it. ‘There’s a mobile.’ She took it out and switched it off, to protect it from online interference, and placed it in a Faraday bag.

Next out was a wallet. It, too, was leather and, flipping it open, the plastic cards inside appeared undamaged.

‘Do we have a possible name?’ Chrissy said.

‘Olivia Newton Richardson.’ Rhona dropped the wallet into another bag.

‘So no shoes, yet she brought her handbag?’ Chrissy said.

‘No jewellery, either,’ Rhona remarked.

‘What about tattoos?’ Chrissy said.

‘Nothing visible as yet, and I don’t plan to remove the clothing here. We’ll wait until the PM.’

‘She liked nail varnish,’ Chrissy said. ‘Both hands and feet are painted. So why no jewellery? There’s a mark on the wrist, though. Both wrists, in fact.’

Rhona checked for herself, then, without commenting, crouched for a closer look at the ankles.

‘What is it?’ Chrissy said.

‘I think these might be plastic cable tie marks,’ Rhona said. Which if true meant the victim had been bound hand and foot prior to being set on fire.

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