Beth made sure that she breathed through her mouth when DI O’Dowd lifted the crime scene tape and waved her over.

Off to her right a couple of constables were talking to a woman who kept dabbing at her eyes. Beth ducked under the tape and took care to step on the footpads laid out by the CSI team. The protective oversuit she’d donned rustled as she moved, and the sun was still so high that it brought a sheen of perspiration to her brow.

Once inside the building, Beth could see rows of chairs and various areas decorated with garlands of fresh flowers. The front of the house overlooked a manicured lawn bordered by colourful flowerbeds. As picturesque as the gardens may be, Beth couldn’t imagine why anyone would choose a dilapidated country house as a wedding venue. All of the walls may be more or less intact, but the building was nothing more than a hollow shell.

O’Dowd led her to a painted wooden partition, which Beth assumed had been constructed by the new owners. A panel had been removed, and they stepped from the paved area into a space yet to have even the scant renovations the section set out for the wedding had received. This part of the house was dilapidated and there was a bush growing in the corner, but none of this captured Beth’s attention. In a lower area, that Beth judged from the row of joist holes at ground level in the walls was once a cellar, a man’s body was suspended on a post.

In other parts of the area piles of rubble were overgrown with grass and weeds. Someone, Beth guessed a member of the CSI team, had propped an aluminium ladder against the wall at the side to provide access to the lower level.

Beth reached the bottom of the ladder and stood in front of the corpse. As she examined the dead man she could feel Zoe O’Dowd’s eyes on her. As much as she was trying to impress, she knew she was being monitored. What Beth did and said now would be forever recalled by the DI.

The body’s arms were held outright to the elbow by thick, black cable ties attached to a horizontal timber. Each arm had a tie at the top and bottom of the bicep to secure the body to the timber.

The body didn’t look as though it was newly dead, which made Beth glad she was breathing through her mouth. So far as she could see, it was discoloured. Parts of the body’s fleshier areas looked to have been scavenged on by wildlife, and these showed greater signs of decay. To Beth’s mind the body had been here a number of days. The recent spell of warm weather the county had enjoyed would have hastened the rotting process.

Beth lifted her head and looked at the man’s face. The eye sockets were empty and there were blisters around the mouth. Birds could be responsible for the missing eyes, but there was no way she wanted to jump to conclusions without some evidence to back up any ideas she put forward.

On closer inspection, she noticed the lips appeared to have been scorched. Beth’s first thought was a blowtorch, but she knew the scorching could have been done with anything from a blowtorch to a cigarette lighter.

At the body’s feet, three of the numbered plastic CSI markers drew her attention to areas where the weeds showed signs of fire damage. Coupled with the damage to the victim’s mouth, they pointed to this being the place where the victim was killed.

The noisy clearing of O’Dowd’s throat caught Beth’s attention. Following the circling movements of the DI’s outstretched finger, she padded round to the back of the body. The uneven ground made it awkward to keep her balance on the footpads, but Beth made it to the final one without incident.

She hadn’t meant to gasp when she looked at the victim’s back, but it was an involuntary reaction with a nasty side effect. As she exhaled, instinct and habit made her breathe in through her nose.

At once her stomach heaved and filled her mouth with bile. Beth pursed her lips together and swallowed down. Once, twice and then a third time until she felt it was safe to open her mouth and take a breath.

This was an action she’d had to do many times during her childhood in Penrith when a gust of wind had sent the stench of rotting flesh from the protein plant cascading through the streets and housing estates.

‘Good girl.’

Beth’s cheeks burned at O’Dowd’s patronising comment, but she still gave her boss a nod of thanks.

Her eyes returned to the body. Seen from the rear, it took on a whole different perspective, which made sense of O’Dowd’s cryptic briefing.

Beth leaned forward as far as she dared before she risked toppling forward, and examined the corpse with a greater level of care.

The folded black wings were where her eyes went first, but the point she ultimately focussed on was where they were attached to the man’s back.

A matchbox-sized area of skin had been removed from each shoulder blade, and the thin bones, which usually attached the wings to the body of a bird, appeared to have been fused to them.

The idea that Beth couldn’t shake from her mind was that whoever brought this man here, and left him in such a fashion, was only starting whatever project he planned. The whole tableau the killer had created was disturbing and horrific.

The mind which had dreamed up such a kill had to be warped. Whatever demons were haunting this killer needed to be contained, preferably by a lengthy confinement at Her Majesty’s pleasure.

‘Your thoughts please, Beth.’ O’Dowd’s voice was soft, as though she was being respectful to the dead man hanging between them. ‘I know you’re new to FMIT and haven’t seen anything like this before, but then neither have I.’

‘Bizarre. Twisted. Sick.’

O’Dowd gave her a stern look. ‘Care to elaborate?’

‘Sorry, ma’am. I don’t know, this is so far off the wall I’m not sure what to think. Ritualistic is a word that springs to mind, but I’m not sure if it’s the right word. I hate to tempt fate, but this is just so twisted in every sense of the word, and I can’t help but worry it won’t end here. I may be wrong, and this may turn out to be a one off with just the intention of killing this man, but I have a feeling that this is only the beginning of something bigger.’

Beth pulled her eyes off the wings and looked to O’Dowd to see how her words had been received.

She got a sharp nod of affirmation for her trouble.

O’Dowd’s agreement gave Beth a confidence boost, so she dared to ask a question. ‘I know there will have to be a post-mortem and I’m sure the CSI will have taken the victim’s prints, but what happens next? While I was waiting for you to bring me here, I looked at the house, took a quick look at the surrounding buildings. There’s nowhere here for anyone to live and I haven’t seen any security cameras. The gate we came through after pulling off the road has a heavy chain round the gatepost and an open padlock hanging from it. I can’t see us getting any witnesses or CCTV footage. The best hope we’ve got is that someone saw a vehicle parked in that lay-by outside the gate. I had a quick word with the woman who was looking after the wedding, but all she did was put out the chairs and show the guests where to go when they arrived. Evidently they have only just started hosting wedding ceremonies here, and there’s little more than a bower for the celebrant to stand under and a few dozen chairs for the guests. One day they want to be able to offer it as a full venue, where you can have the party afterwards too, but they’re not quite up to that yet.’

Beth saw O’Dowd’s eyes narrow in assessment of her and wondered what her new boss would make of her observations.

‘Who instructed you to go wandering around, asking these things?’

‘Nobody, ma’am, it just seemed like a better use of my time than standing around waiting for you or DC Thompson to come back and give me some orders.’

‘You’re right, it was.’ O’Dowd raised a finger in admonishment. ‘Just be careful; you’re quite obviously a smart person, but while you’re of no worry to me, others – especially some male others, if you know what I’m saying – won’t necessarily always see your initiative as a positive thing. They’ll see it as a threat. Make sure you have your back covered and don’t let your inquisitive streak lead you into trouble.’

As Beth climbed the ladder, she wondered if the warning was in regard to Thompson, or whether there were others she also needed to be wary of.