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to ever having climbed to the top of the rock. The weather had been so wet recently that Marsh and Melsom doubted if anyone had been at the rock for days.
    ‘Think about it, Jimmy,’ said Marsh. ‘This wasn’t any normal domestic murder, not the state the body was in. It’s too vicious for that. It’ll be some kind of gangland killing, in which case they’ll have known how to cover their tracks.’
    ‘So what’s next?’ asked Melsom.
    ‘Farms, outhouses. We’ll make a start on that tomorrow morning, first thing.’
    Then, Sophie was beside them.
    ‘Does that seem reasonable, ma’am?’ Marsh said.
    ‘Perfectly. There’ll be a post-mortem in the morning, if you want to come. Then the forensic examination, though the initial feedback suggests there’s very little to go on. We can but hope.’
     

Chapter 3: The Lost Girl
    Wednesday, Week 1
     
    Sophie smiled sweetly at Dorset’s senior forensic pathologist. ‘So what do you have for me, Benny? Sorry to hear about your hip by the way. Martin told me to tell you that rugby and old age don’t mix. He said to stick to bird watching in future.’
    ‘I was going to give you a hug, but you really don’t deserve one after that comment.’
    ‘Don’t blame the messenger. Anyway, what about the body that Barry here discovered yesterday?’
    ‘I can give you the physical stuff, but there’s nothing that tells us who he is. Come into the lab and we’ll get started.’
    In the pathology theatre, the corpse was already laid out on the bench. Goodall’s assistant waited at the top end, notebook in hand. Sophie walked around the body, looking at the gaping wounds on the neck and face. She stood aside as Goodall started work. He spoke into a microphone, recording the examination as he proceeded.
    ‘Here we have a young male — Caucasian. His age is probably between eighteen and twenty. Starting at the front, there’s some bruising of the forehead, nose and cheeks. This occurred before death, judging by the residual traces of blood. The unusual injury, though, is the removal of the tongue. This was also done before death, sliced off with a very sharp knife. The wound is clean, and shows no signs of hacking. Someone grabbed his tongue, pulled it out as far as it would go and sliced it off with one cut.’
    ‘Would he have died from that if his throat hadn’t been cut?’ asked Marsh.
    ‘Unlikely, although he would have swallowed a lot of blood, and there will be some in his lungs I imagine. If he was restrained on his back, it probably would have ended up being fatal due to the lungs filling with blood, but my guess is that his throat was cut immediately afterwards. The tongue removal probably has some kind of gangland significance, but that’s your area.’
    He lifted the head and felt around the skull. ‘There don’t seem to be any other injuries apart from some more bruising that looks as though it occurred before death.’
    He opened the mouth. ‘We’ve taken a DNA sample and it’s already off for analysis, but there is some dental work worth noting on his rear right wisdom tooth. It looks a bit crude.’
    ‘What do you mean?’ asked Sophie.
    ‘It’s not been finished off properly. It’s a bit of a botch-up. My guess is that it’s been done abroad on the cheap.’
    ‘But my aunt’s had dental work done abroad. It saves money, and she reckons it’s as good as she could get done here,’ Marsh said. ‘I think it was in the Czech Republic.’
    ‘No doubt. But she’ll have gone to one of their top private dentists. I think I’ll get one of our dental experts to take a look. He might be able to give us more information.’
    ‘Could he be foreign?’ asked Sophie.
    ‘The DNA profile might give some clues when it comes back next week.’
    ‘That face might have a slightly Eastern European look, ma’am,’ Marsh said.
    ‘That’s what I was thinking. A slightly Slavic bone structure. The trouble is, it’s lost its most obvious features due to