40

I WAS WOKEN BY A SHRILL NOISE TOO CLOSE TO MY HEAD. I groped around and found my new phone.

‘Morning, gorgeous.’

‘What?’ I managed. ‘Who?’

‘It’s me – Pete. Expecting someone else?’

‘Whadayawant?’

‘Got something that’ll make your day.’

‘Go on.’

‘Semen.’

I struggled to sit up. ‘Stenning, don’t think I’m not flattered, but—’

‘Not mine, you dozy mare. On the corpse.’

Wide awake now. ‘Come again.’

‘Apt choice of words, Flint. DI Tulloch’s just got back from the post-mortem. The pathologist found semen on the corpse.’

I needed a second to take that in. It hadn’t been enough then, to slice her open … ‘He raped her?’

I heard Stenning take a breath. ‘Yeah, pretty heavy,’ he said. ‘But great for us. We—’

‘Hang on, they’ve already had the post-mortem?’ What the hell time was it?

‘First thing this morning. Another musical one, apparently. Tulloch and Anderson went. They’ve just filled us in.’

I leaned across until I could see my alarm clock. Nearly half past ten.

‘Tulloch said we weren’t to wake you up,’ said Stenning. ‘But I thought you’d want to hear the good news. We’ll get him, Flint. We’ve got a name and DNA. He’s going down. Oh, and the papers have cottoned on to the Victorian connection. Your friend Emma Boston, of all people, worked it out.’

I was out of bed, wondering what I had to wear that was clean.

‘Now get your ass in here. The boss wants you bringing us up to speed on the double event. Just in case.’