“What do you mean disappeared?”

“We booked it in and then did the initial checks. The body was kept in freezer overnight, but this morning, when my technician went to collect the body for autopsy... it was gone.”

“Gone? Did you get the records mixed up, have you looked for Christ's sake?” Alex said.

“Of course we bloody looked. What the hell, Alex? Do you think we make a habit of misplacing bodies? Our CCTV was tampered with last night, which suggests one thing: someone broke in and stole the body.”

“How the hell could they get in? We passed a dozen security doors just to get here, let alone trying to get a corpse out of the building. Were there any signs of forced entry?”

“We don't know how they got in. I have people looking at the possibility that our security system was hacked, but so far there are no signs of that. Alex, things get worse,” Chris said.

“Worse? How the hell could this get worse?”

“A group of government types appeared right after I phoned you. They have taken possession of all the evidence we collected last night: the photos, samples, notes - everything. Head of Pathology called in to confirm it, they were in and out in ten minutes.”

Alex was shaking, not with fear, but with rage. She didn't need this, the case didn't need this. The Greys Inn murder was their first lead in weeks, the killer had made mistakes and, if they found out why, they’d have him.

“Did the government take the body?” Alex said.

“That's what I thought when they turned up, but they were furious when they heard about it, accused me of disrupting an investigation relating to a matter of national security. Detective Superintendent Stroud called me after my boss did, he said the case has been dropped in relation to your serial killer. It's over Alex,” Chris said.

“Did you find anything else out, anything you didn't tell me last night? What are we missing here Chris?”

“I didn't get a chance to examine any of the evidence we collected. Everything I know, you know.”

“You believe it's the same killer?”

“Of course, but Superintendent Stroud said-”

“And you definitely think it was a suicide? I mean, he killed himself before the killer made their move?”

“That I am not sure of, given the amount of blood over the victim, the two events were very close in time. Alex, we need to drop this.”

“Ask around, I want to know what we found that brought the spooks in. They're not taking this case from us, we need it.”

They were back at the station in a flash. Alex climbed the stairs to the eighth floor at such a speed, Dimitri was out of breath by the time they reached the landing. Standing in front of Detective Superintendent Stroud's secretary, a plump ginger haired woman with appalling taste in blouses, Alex loomed over her, leaning on the desk.

“I need to see him, is he alone?” Alex said.

“Yes, but-”

She didn't wait for her to finish. Alex barged into the office and slammed the door behind her before Dimitri could follow.

Detective Superintendent Nick Stroud was a balding man whose remaining jet black hair was cut short on the sides of his head. With his raven like features and deep set eyes, Nick had a stare that was able to break suspects fake alibis without a word being said. He was also Alex's father, but she convinced herself that he had nothing to do with her latest promotion to DI. Just his name carried weight around here and, until she got married, she shared that name. Married.