‘Along with his wedding ring, yes. His finger came off with it, but don’t tell his wife.’

‘We were friends once, me and Justice Quinn. I gave him that band myself.’

‘You can have it back once I’ve finished with it here.’

‘You can send it over if you want but I’ll give it to his wife, or else she’ll be wondering what happened to it. She never knew where it came from and I wouldn’t want her to find out now.’

‘Well, of course I formally identified him with a DNA test, so we don’t have to mention the band.’

Katie found it hard to believe that the body lying in front of her was the man that she had once loved. He had no face, and so he had no more personality than a crash-test dummy painted matt black.

‘Was it possible for you to tell if he was alive or dead when he was burned?’

‘That was the main thing I was going to tell you. His trachea and his lungs were badly scorched, so the likelihood is that he was still alive when the car was set alight, and that he took in at least one breath before the fire killed him. As I told you, we managed to extract a reasonable amount of bodily fluids, and your forensic experts should be able to tell us if he was under the influence of any drug, or drunk.’

‘Drunk? At that time of the morning? He was supposed to be driving to court.’

‘It has been known, Kathleen. You know that as well as I do.’

*

They went through to the visitors’ observation room. It was a small, plain room with two windows. One window looked out over the back fences of Laburnum Park. Through the other they could see into the room next door, where Roisin Carroll’s body was lying on a table, with a white sheet drawn up to her neck. Her face was gently lit and her hair was brushed and shining. Her hands were laid one across the other, as if she were resting, or sleeping.

The room smelled pungently of new nylon carpet, and there was only one piece of furniture, an upright chair in case any visiting relative might suddenly feel faint. Katie and Dr Kelley went up to the window and looked in at Roisin, and Dr Kelley was right, she did appear angelic. She even seemed to have a wistful smile on her lips.