‘Right people, let’s get things under way.’ The DI clapped his hands like we were a bunch of errant schoolchildren. ‘This meeting is going to be short. We’re not going to waste time in here. I want everyone out there, on the streets. The officers in charge are on the board. Everyone else: Detective Sergeant Gibbs will give you your brief and tell you where you’ll be assigned.’ The DI moved over to the board with the photos. ‘The victim is Rose-Marie Bateman. She’s twenty-three; a student at the university. Her body was discovered in the Water of Leith, near the walkway from Gore Place to the Botanic Garden, at eight-fifteen this morning by a resident in the area. SOCOs are at the site now and ESR on the way.’ Bang. Bang. Bang. A bullet-point presentation. He wasn’t one for superfluous detail.

‘The investigation will be called Operation Sparrow.’

I cringed. One thing that irked me was the police’s little habit of naming operations after birds. I supposed it made it easier than having to talk about the investigation into the murder of so-and-so – but birds? And ‘Sparrow’? Sparrows were boring – drab, brown, puny things. Rose-Marie was young and pretty. Surely they could have come up with something a little more appropriate?

‘The body is still in situ and we won’t be able to confirm anything until a post-mortem is carried out, but indications are the murder took place last night. The victim’s hands were restrained with a plastic cable tie and her mouth was taped. She suffered blunt-force trauma to the head, most likely from being banged against a rock, but she probably died by drowning. Her clothing was intact and there doesn’t appear to have been any sexual assault.’

I studied the faces around me. Put like that, in shopping-list fashion, it didn’t seem to make much impression on them. But I had seen it. I had seen her in the cold, waxen flesh, murdered and discarded, bedraggled and pitiful. The chill settled back into my bones, and I couldn’t stop a shudder. The only face that mirrored my own distaste was Smithy’s. He’d borne witness too. He felt my stare and gave me a gentle thump on the leg. It induced a small smile. I returned my attention to the DI.