‘Get SSD down here now,’ Kate shouted at the constable.

He looked at her curiously. ‘What is it?’

Kate stepped away, fighting the urge to bring up her breakfast.

‘Just get them down here,’ she managed to blurt, as she desperately tried to control her breathing.

‘Okay, okay,’ the desk constable replied, picking up the phone and dialling the extension. ‘What should I tell them?’

Kate edged back towards the counter, daring herself to look again then reaching for a pair of latex gloves in a box on the desk. She took a deep breath before lifting the lid slightly once more. Nestled within the box, surrounded by stained rose and strawberry-scented car air fresheners, was a grey and shrivelled heart.

‘Tell them someone has sent me a heart and that I need to know whether it’s human.’

The desk constable leaned forward, not quite believing what he was being told, but as soon as he saw the greying tissue, he grabbed the phone and started repeating Kate’s instructions.

Kate used a pen to prod the organ, and as she did, she noticed something scrawled on one of the strawberry-scented air fresheners. Careful not to disturb the organ, she lifted it out and read the message. ‘I’m sorry.’

---

Ben lowered his face mask. ‘Well, it’s definitely human.’

Kate took a step backwards, her worst fears confirmed. ‘Can you tell when it was extracted?’

‘Based on my initial observations, the lack of blood within it and its temperature, we’re talking a few days, maybe a week since it stopped beating.’

Kate braced herself for the answer to her next question. ‘Is it Daisy’s?’

‘I can say with one hundred per cent certainty it isn’t.’

Kate breathed out a huge sigh of relief, but caught herself as the reality of what he was saying bubbled to the surface. ‘So, if it’s not Daisy’s, is it a match to our foot victim?’

‘No, it isn’t. I’ve passed the bloodwork to SSD to process and compare against DNA profiles in the system, but in the meantime, I can tell you that it belonged to a man in his late thirties or early forties.’

‘Male? How can you be so certain?’

‘The size and mass are the clearest indicators. A woman’s heart is about two-thirds the size of a man’s, and as a result weighs an average sixty grams less. This particular heart came in at about 178 grams, which is pretty average for the sex. Then there are other tell-tale signs such as the thickness of the veins, and the sensitivity of those veins too. We’re looking at a male heart for sure. Given the state of the tissue, there are preliminary signs of degradation, which led to my prediction of the age, but what’s also interesting is this heart was once attached to a pacemaker.’

‘A pacemaker.’

He nodded, stepping back to the table and lifting a flap of tissue. ‘If you look here, you can see leads that were used to send electrical impulses to the heart muscle to maintain a suitable heart rate and rhythm. I would guess that your victim suffered with bradycardia: when the heartbeat is slower than normal.’

‘But I thought pacemakers were something people had fitted after heart attacks and the like. You said he was a reasonably young man.’

‘Of the pacemakers installed each year, the vast majority are fitted to those over the age of sixty-five as you observed, but a small percentage are also installed in younger people suffering with certain conditions. It will take further examination to determine exactly why the pacemaker was fitted in this individual, but it should certainly help narrow your list of possible victims.’

‘But what does this mean? It seems too coincidental that a heart is sent to us in the same week we find a severed foot. Are they connected?’

He considered her question. ‘Whoever extracted this heart from the victim didn’t use surgical tools to do it. The vena cava, pulmonary arteries, and pulmonary trunk were cut using some kind of shearing instrument; maybe scissors? You can tell by the tear in the tissue. A scalpel would have left a different indentation. The reason we use scalpels for making cuts and incisions is they offer greater control and cause less damage to the tissue. Whoever made these cuts wasn’t worried about preserving the organ for further study. It was quite heavy-handed, shall we say. Given the type of saw used to remove the foot, it’s possible you could be looking for the same individual, but there is nothing concrete to tie them together.’

Kate pulled off her face mask as she headed for the door. ‘Call me as soon as the bloods are done. And thank you.’

---

Kate paced in front of the gathered team of detectives who’d heard the rumour of what had been discovered and were eagerly awaiting confirmation.

‘I want one of you at that delivery depot immediately,’ Kate began, without breaking her stride. ‘I want to know exactly who deposited that box with them. Get me any security footage they have too, because we need to nail the person responsible for this as soon as possible.’

DC Freeborn raised his hand. ‘I’ll go, ma’am.’

‘Thanks, Ewan. Don’t let them give you any shit about confidentiality laws, and don’t tell them why we need the information. The last thing we want is this leaking to the press. And that goes for you lot as well. I know the local journos will pay through the teeth for something like this, but this one stays under wraps. Is that clear? If it gets out, someone will hang for it.’

Freeborn grabbed his coat and made for the door.

‘The killer scrawled an apology,’ Kate continued. ‘It was written on a strawberry-scented car air freshener, identical to those we saw in the gymnasium on Friday night. These air fresheners are common, so I don’t think we should waste too much time trying to identify where they were purchased. Kate stopped and fixed the room with a serious look. ‘We have to act before this sicko gets a chance to strike again. It seems more than a little coincidental that the same rose and strawberry-scented air fresheners were used at the school and in this package. Let’s not rule anything out, but I also want you to investigate any links between the crimes. This heart belonged to a male victim, the foot a female. How many other victims’ body parts are going to turn up? If there is a new serial killer on our patch, we’re not going to stop until we catch him.’