‘Super macho, very alpha male,’ he continues. They all look at the picture. Dark floppy hair, strong jaw, excellent stubble. Freya gets a slight glimmer of recognition. Josh looks at them both, expecting a response. ‘You must have heard of him?’ Josh’s voice rises in surprise. ‘There was this episode last year. Him and his crew got stranded for three days in the middle of the Mojave Desert. Survived by bashing up cacti and drinking their own piss. Made all the headlines.’

Mina shrugs again.

‘Anyway. He’s dead? Wonder what happened.’ Josh puts the phone in his pocket and opens the car door. ‘Come on, let’s go and see about this freezer.’

The crime scene is in full flow by the time they arrive, ducking under the blue and white tape of the outer cordon and approaching the freezer. The woman in charge indicates for them to move to the side, then lowers her face mask.

Freya can see that Dr Steph Harper is already sweating, her face pink, the white plastic suit not ideal in the May morning sunshine.

‘Nice of you guys to make it, at last. Freya,’ she says with a quick acknowledging nod. ‘Good to have you back, Mina. How are those kids of yours?’

‘Feral,’ Mina replies with a smile. ‘But happy.’

‘Best way,’ Harper laughs.

‘What do we have?’ Josh asks impatiently, and Steph gives him a look.

‘Who put the new guy in charge?’

‘Shortage of officers,’ Mina replies.

‘Must be.’

Josh shifts from foot to foot. ‘If you two have finished…’ he says, and Steph rolls her eyes.

‘Unidentified male,’ she starts. ‘Found this morning at half six, when one of the staff tried to move the freezer and tipped it over. Gave the old guy quite a shock.’

‘I bet,’ Josh says. The four of them look over to where three white suits are loading the corpse into a black bag. Freya can see a socked foot and a leg. The chest freezer is still on its side behind them: a big old thing, it’s no wonder it hadn’t been shifted. The too-small, wheeled pallet truck responsible for the mess sits behind in the mud, clearly unsuitable for the job.

‘I estimate the body to be between fifty and sixty years of age. No obvious injuries or cause of death. Pretty fresh, by the look of things. Dead no longer than eight hours, rigor present, still warm.’ Steph runs the back of her hand across her hot face, wincing. ‘We’ll finish up here with the body, then SOCO can take the whole freezer back for processing. Can’t be done soon enough, as far as I’m concerned.’

‘Anything else of interest around the freezer?’

Steph shakes her head. ‘SOCO said no usable footwear marks in the mud. The storm made a complete mess. Mud, rubbish everywhere.’

‘And any idea who the freezer belonged to?’ Josh asks.