Khosa took a call from Holder as they left the Carsons’ house. A brief call, full of someone else talking and Khosa providing OKs. She finished the call and turned to Anna as they reached the car.

‘Justin has some news about the second body. It’s been moved to the mortuary as well. Gupta says we can take a look when we get back. Justin will meet us there.’

‘You drive,’ Anna said. ‘I’ll fill you in on what Tom Carson said.’

As Khosa headed south, Anna explained about the sketchbook.

‘So definitely Black Squid-related,’ Khosa said when Anna finished. ‘Do you think there’s a chance they pulled his phone records when he went missing?’

‘There’s a chance. But I doubt they’d have used text messaging in those days. More likely it’d be a chat room of some kind.’

‘Internet records?’

‘Maybe. But we don’t even know if that Internet café in Fishponds still exists, let alone who their provider was. And then we’d need to try and find out when Jamie was there.’

‘Worth checking though, ma’am.’

‘It is. But I’m not hopeful.’

‘What about the other victims we’ve connected? Daniel, Abbie?’

Anna didn’t answer immediately. The police files on Daniel and Abbie were thin. But someone else had carried out an investigation into Abbie’s death and found lots of answers. It would be an obvious and necessary step. First, they needed to find out who the other bones belonged to.

---

They’d built a new mortuary in Flax Bourton in 2009. It was an odd – some might say perverse – place for a mortuary: in a village five miles out from the centre of the city and nine from HQ at Portishead. But then the Avon Coroner’s Court was in the same village. They’d built the mortuary with forensic capability at the back of the impressive stone listed building the coroner inherited from its previous incarnation as a magistrates’ court. But the mortuary was very different, a modern yellow-brick and mustard-rendered building with special parking bays for the hearses. Anna thought it garish, but she supposed it didn’t matter what she thought; the dead wouldn’t care.

Inside in the autopsy suite, disinfectant and death mingled in a sickly perfume. There were white walls, high windows, stainless steel sinks and tables arranged around the edge of the room. Two of the tables were occupied with draped corpses awaiting their turn. But on a different two tables at the far end, the bones from the railway had been laid out on sterile drapes. Sunil Gupta, the Home Office pathologist, was a small, neat man in white wellies and blue scrubs, with a sort of jovial demeanour that sometimes grated with the setting. He looked up as Anna, Holder and Khosa, all suitably dressed in paper gowns and masks, entered.

‘Over here, Inspector,’ Gupta called.

Anna had been to many autopsies, and at least this time there was no flesh to cut through or gas to escape from a punctured and bloated abdomen. Gupta stood between the two tables. Next to him stood a tall, slight woman similarly dressed in the pathologist’s uniform of scrubs and plastic apron.

It always worried Anna to see this garb. What awful diseases can you catch from bones? she wondered.

Gupta spoke as Anna approached. ‘This is Detective Inspector Anna Gwynne and her team, DCs Khosa and Holder.’ Gupta turned towards his colleague with gesturing hands. ‘And this, ladies and gentleman is Dr Karen Brown, forensic osteologist. It is she who has answered our call.’

‘I take it there was no soft tissue left, Dr Gupta?’ Anna asked.

‘Nothing for me to get my teeth into,’ Gupta said and smiled at the way Khosa grimaced. ‘Gallows humour,’ he added. ‘Should be taught as a required course in medical school.’

‘You’d be head of department, then,’ Anna said.

‘And you, Inspector, would be my toughest assignment.’

‘Shall we?’ Brown spoke. Her accent was southern, but that’s all Anna could glean through the mask. ‘Firstly, we have the male. Young. Long bones not quite fully fused. The dental records have confirmed his identity as Jamie Carson, though we only have half a jaw to compare with.’

‘We’ve been to see the family,’ Anna said. ‘Have you any idea about cause of death?’

Brown moved to the head of the table. Anna was glad to see the skull sitting where it should have been.

‘If you look here’ – she pointed towards the space between the top of the ribcage and the bottom of the skull – ‘many of the cervical vertebrae are missing and those that aren’t are severely damaged. Crushed and splintered, as was the bottom of the skull and mandible.’ Brown held up the mottled bone and pointed, with an extendable metal pointer, towards a jagged hole. ‘The foramen magnum. It’s where the spinal cord runs down from the brain. Usually it’s a smooth oval. But here you can see a piece of it is missing, the edges fractured. And the mandible and jaw are in pieces, here.’ She pointed to an arrangement of bones on the drape. ‘Some of them had teeth.’

‘What could do that?’ Holder asked.

‘Severe trauma. Something that might have caused the head to swivel, severing the vertebra and rotating the head until it came off, probably crushing the lower jaw in the process.’

Khosa took a step away.

‘There’s a bucket over there.’ Gupta pointed towards an adjacent table.

‘I’m fine,’ Khosa said. She didn’t look it.

‘It fits our pattern,’ Anna said. ‘Anything else?’

‘No.’ Brown shook her head. ‘Otherwise remarkably clean.’

‘Nothing from you, Dr Gupta?’

‘Stomach contents? DNA stains? This is not CSI Miami, Inspector. All organic material has long been consumed by our friendly anaerobic bacteria or simply degraded into bugger all.’

Anna nodded. It was exactly as she thought.

‘The body was near a railway track. If the head came off in some sort of major trauma, for example a train running over his neck, then the head would have had to be placed in the grave separately for us to have found it there?’ she asked.

‘Yes.’ Brown nodded and then stepped towards the second set of bones. The team followed, sliding around the edge of the table until they could see. ‘Now this one is quite different. Older, definitely. Height, I’d say around five five. And, judging from the pelvic differences, the broad sciatic notch, circular inlet, the flaring, this one is female. She has had some dental work and there was a ring on her finger. I think you noticed that at the site, am I right?’

‘She wouldn’t have missed that,’ Gupta said.

Brown frowned.

‘Cause of death?’ Anna asked. She had no time for Gupta’s frivolity.

‘Can’t help you there, I’m afraid. The hyoid bone wasn’t intact.’ Brown saw Holder frown. ‘That’s the thin bone above your Adam’s apple. It is frequently crushed in strangulation. But here I can’t tell if it was degradation or break.’

‘So, it’s possible she was strangled?’ Holder asked.

‘Possible, but I can’t be definite. She does have evidence of a broken arm, though.’ Brown pointed at the break in both bones of the forearm on the left side.

‘What could that mean?’

‘There’s no sign of healing so it must have been just before or at the time of death. Could just about do for a defensive injury.’ She looked up at Gupta for confirmation.

He nodded and said, ‘She might have had her arm up to fend off something heavy.’

‘So, no clues as to who this is?’

‘Ah, that’s not quite true.’ Brown indicated a separate area where two items lay on a blue paper drape. ‘The ring, awaiting transfer to the lab for analysis, and what appears to be a plastic card.’

Anna leaned in close. ‘Is that an image I can see on it?’

Brown nodded. ‘Looks like it might have been a photograph. It’s now more or less a silhouette. There are also some traces of letters, but too faded for the naked eye. And they are not embossed so that suggests it’s not a credit card. But there is a magnetic strip. If I had to guess I’d say that this was some kind of a swipe card.’

Anna nodded. ‘A hotel door key, that sort of thing?’

Brown pursed her lips. ‘Yes.’ Then she added, ‘The lab might be able to enhance the image.’

‘Good.’ Anna took out her phone and photographed the items. ‘Why do you think this was left?’

‘It was underneath the pelvis, a bit like the wallet from the other body. It’s possible this might have been in the back pocket. Easily overlooked by someone doing a quick search.’

Anna frowned. ‘Why do you say that?’

‘No phone. No other ID. Just the ring and this card. The ring might have been hidden. Perhaps her hands were muddied or bloodied, who knows. And the card might have been totally unobtrusive in a back pocket.’

‘Makes sense,’ Holder said.

‘Thanks. You’ve been really helpful,’ Anna said.

‘You never say that to me.’ Gupta looked peeved.

‘That’s because getting information from you is like squeezing a desiccated lemon,’ Anna said.

Gupta grinned. ‘None taken, Inspector.’