He shook his head. ‘A very brutal attack. Very calculated. She has scratches and particles of dirt on her knees. My guess is that she put up a fairly good fight.’

‘Any skin under the nails? Anything else for us to go on?’ Kate’s voice was low and subdued.

He shook his head. ‘Nothing, I’m afraid. Of course we can get a DNA reading from the semen . . .’ His voice trailed off. He shrugged. ‘Maybe some traces of hair or fibre will turn up off her clothes. I’ll let you know.’ The pathologist began combing Geraldine’s pubic hair slowly and carefully, his mind back on his job. Kate turned away from the woman’s rapidly greying body.

‘Thanks.’

She walked from the mortuary and Willis followed her. Neither spoke until they were back in the canteen at Grantley Police Station sipping cups of coffee.

‘Look, don’t let it get to you, love. These things happen.’

Kate stared at the younger man, frowning in concentration. She took a deep breath.

‘How dare you?’ Her voice was low and filled with rage. Willis was shocked. ‘How dare you patronise me like that? Just who the hell do you think you are? “These things happen”! Is that what you honestly believe?’

Her voice was incredulous. ‘Do you think that Mrs Geraldine O’Leary is standing in heaven thinking: These things happen. Do you think her husband and children are just shrugging their shoulders thinking: These things happen!’

Her voice was beginning to rise and Willis looked around him in embarrassment.

‘These things don’t just happen, boy.’ She stressed the last word. ‘Out there somewhere is a murdering rapist. Do you understand the enormity of that? Do you? Well, DO YOU?’

Willis sat rigid in his seat, crimson with shame. Everyone in the room had gone quiet and was sitting watching them.

‘It means that for the majority of women normal living will now be curtailed at four-thirty when it gets dark. It means that women who live alone or whose husbands work nights will be sitting uneasily in their own homes. It means that even locked in a car driving along they will not feel safe. It means that parents with young daughters will be sick with apprehension until they return from school, work, wherever they may have been. The list is bloody endless! How dare you sit there and tell me these things happen?

‘And one last thing, while we’re getting ourselves sorted out. I am a Detective Inspector. I am your boss. So in future you address me as such. In the six months I have been here there has been a general lack of respect, and as from today your lackadaisical attitude stops.’

Getting up from her seat, Kate stormed from the canteen, leaving a hush behind her.

Willis sighed heavily and one of his friends, DS Spencer, went to his table.