Six men, two women - all killed in the same surgical way, by someone who had been labelled by the media as a ghost. Everyone in the incident room stood silently in front of the board, as striped light poured in through blinded windows across the rows of desks, painting masks across the faces of the detectives. A literal depiction of how their lives were led, hiding their true selves from their colleagues, putting on a face they wished others to see.

“Either we have made too many assumptions and lost the pattern, or we are missing something major. This last killing is a further step away still,” Alex said.

“You mean that this one killed himself, right babe?” Dimitri said.

Why he thought he could call her 'babe' was beyond her. Dimitri was a pig, why she had been partnered with him was anybody's guess, probably because no one else could stand him.

“Yes, although we are still waiting on forensics for their assessment, babe,” Alex said.

She paused on the last word, staring into his almost black eyes with a threat that suggested another word from him and Alex would send him flying back to mother Prussia.

“We have been unable to determine the identity of the victim,” Drew said.

“Dimitri, did the house-to-house calls bring anything up?” Alex said.

“Nobody saw nothing, which isn't surprising as there is mostly offices around there,” Dimitri said.

“Nobody saw anything,” Alex corrected him.

“Whatever.”

“What about the business card we found on the body? Minerva, any ideas?”

“The card with the two gates on it? I have tons of forensics to wade through this morning, Dimitri, do you have time to follow it up?” Minerva said.

Dimitri nodded and Minerva handed him an evidence bag with the card in, the polythene container just poking out of her overly sized woollen jumper that gave her the look of a bedraggled sheep.

“I'll get the Holmes action updated,” Drew said.

Holmes was the Met's IT system for keeping track of any major investigation, recording all evidence, interviews, potential leads and suspect information. It was a system that, although efficient, felt a million miles away from the police dramas you see on the television. Its only bonus was that absolutely everything was stored in one place.

“I heard that the other unit is going back over all the victim's friends and family interviews. What does that leave us doing?” Alex said.

“Superintendent Stroud wants us to handle the new case,” Drew said.

The phone rang on Alex's desk and she answered it.

“Alex, is that you? I tried ringing Nick, but there was no answer.”

“Hey Chris, yeah, he's seeing the commissioner about the new murder. Surely you can't have finished the autopsy already? It's only ten,” Alex said.

“Alex, I don't know how it happened, we can't explain it,” Chris said.

“What are you talking about?”

“Alex, it's the body. It’s… well, it’s gone.”

Five minutes later Dimitri was driving them to the morgue. The journey was made in silence, Dimitri not stupid enough to offer up any 'funny' comments. Arriving at the Westminster Public Mortuary, Dimitri parked in one of the designated spaces by the entrance, no doubt deciding it was better to receive a parking fine than to further upset her.

Alex barged through security, showing her warrant card to the guards as she shouted at them to get out of the way. Dimitri had to adopt a slight jog to keep up, as she sent doors flying open along her path. Chris stood at the door to the mortuary suite, his face as pale as the bodies he examined.

“What happened?” Alex said, still striding toward him.

“We don't know, the victim’s body was transported here last night and was then processed as normal. Alex, it just disappeared,” Chris said.