After that, McNab had become more inclined to listen to the reporter. It had struck Rhona, as they’d discussed Mark’s run-in with the Met, that there were definite similarities between the way he and McNab went about their jobs.

‘So you’re determined to go to London?’ she said to McNab.

‘If the boss okays it. And I think he will after I talk to him this afternoon.’

‘When you explain how you got that face?’ A sudden thought occurred. ‘You have told Janice?’

‘So you tell Chrissy everything?’ he came back at her.

She didn’t. Hadn’t. In fact, McNab had been her confidant more often than Chrissy. And he knew that, even though it remained unspoken.

Rhona changed the subject. ‘When you speak to Bill, can you stress we need a DNA sample from Olivia Newton . . .’

‘Richardson,’ he completed for her.

It was ridiculous that the Met hadn’t supplied that as yet. Either the real Ms Richardson was alive or the fire victim had died accompanied by her handbag and wallet.

‘I’m also planning a visit to IT,’ McNab said. ‘Seems like we have a digital reconstruction of the fire victim and a photograph of the elusive Ms Richardson to compare.’ He rose.

Rhona glanced at her watch. ‘And I’m heading for a double autopsy on the two Viking warriors.’

‘I’d rather get beaten up in a fight club,’ McNab said.

Stripped now of what little they’d worn and laid out side by side, the difference in height and weight between the two victims was obvious. Dr Sissons registered the male as five foot ten inches, the female as five foot five. They would have made an unequal match whatever game they’d been playing.

Medically, injuries were divided into blunt force trauma and those due to sharp cutting instruments. Stabbing injuries usually killed by penetrating a vital organ or major blood vessels, massive haemorrhage or bleeding out being the most common cause of death.

In both victims, there was some evidence of gnawing from the resident rats, which could be distinguished from the puncture wounds, which were located mostly on the legs and arms, more on the male than the female, and probably inflicted by the points of the short swords found next to the bodies.

‘Pinpricks of pain,’ Sissons had recorded. ‘Perhaps inflicted for sexual gratification. As Dr MacLeod has recorded, both blades were relatively dull, only the points sharpened.’ He paused there. ‘The major incised wounds, however, were made by a different instrument. Sharp, clean-cut wound margins demonstrate a keen blade. Deeper at the entry point, with tail abrasions. Such wounds can be less dangerous than stab wounds, but in both cases I believe the wielder knew where to inflict the most damage. I suspect what was used was a long sword, heavy and very sharp, and whoever was wielding it was intent on death.’