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was drawn to the line between the upper and lower lip. A brown substance had rested there.
    ‘Easy, Inspector,’ Keats warned, watching her every move.
    ‘What’s that?’ she asked, tipping her head to get a better look.
    Keats leaned down from the other side of the body and took a deep breath before placing his face next to to the victim to get a closer look. He didn’t want to exhale and blow away valuable evidence.
    ‘Looks like dirt,’ he said, meeting her gaze.
    ‘In her mouth?’ Kim asked.
    Keats pressed a single finger to a couple of areas of the woman’s swollen face. How he knew what he was touching was a mystery to Kim.
    ‘Don’t quote me until I get her back but I think her mouth is full of it.’
    Kim stood and looked around. ‘Here,’ she called, spotting an area that had clearly been disturbed. A tech marked where she pointed as she moved out of the way. If the killer had scraped at the ground to loosen the dirt he could have left something behind.
    Bryant appeared beside her and held out a cardboard cup. She took it and sipped as she turned her attention to Keats. ‘I already know she’s been here less than twelve hours and there’s no other wound, so…’
    ‘Hear that, guys? The detective inspector knows it all so let’s just pack up now and bury her tomorrow.’
    For a split second Kim wondered if he was referring to the victim or her.
    Both she and the technicians ignored him.
    ‘The professor was very informative while we were waiting for you.’
    ‘So you won’t be grilling me for an early post-mortem then?’ he retorted.
    ‘You wish. Speaking of which…’
    ‘Tomorrow at nine and I’m not budging.’
    ‘Fine.’
    ‘Bryant, feel her forehead. No fight. She’s sickening for something.’
    She offered him a brief smile.
    The timing of the post-mortem suited her perfectly. There was no handbag close by or pockets in the victim’s clothing so identification would be the priority of the day.
    Kim took one last walk around the body, committing every detail to memory. She paused. There was something she hadn’t noted before. She reached towards the left hand, but Keats swatted her away.
    ‘Don’t even think about it. They need to be bagged.’
    Kim raised an eyebrow. This was not her first dead body.
    The hands were one of the most important elements of a body at a crime scene. There could be anything under the fingernails: skin, a fibre, a clue.
    She moved along the body to the feet and found the same clue there.
    She touched the nail of the big toe gently, rubbing the tip of her finger back and forth.
    She felt footsteps approach behind her as she knelt down and brought her face closer to the toes.
    ‘Well… Detective Inspector, it appears we meet again.’
    Kim’s eyelids snapped open at the voice she recognised all too well.

Six
    ‘ D octor Bate ,’ she said, raising herself to a standing position.
    ‘Surely it’s Daniel by now,’ he said, offering his hand.
    Kim touched his hand briefly.
    Now she understood Keats’s amusement and Bryant’s collusion at her anticipated discomfort.
    She and Daniel had met the previous year during the Crestwood investigation. He had been the forensic osteoarchaeologist despatched from Dundee. They had not hit it off initially. They had shared three shallow graves and a stirring of fascination. But the case had ended. He had left. End of story.
    His hair was slightly lighter than she remembered it. Possibly bleached by the sun. His eyes were the same green that seemed to brighten at times with mischief and yet darken behind the thin-rimmed glasses he normally wore while at work.
    He wore light jeans and a khaki T-shirt. The muscles in his arms from his love of outdoor activities remained the same, although there was a fresh scar just below his left elbow.
    Suddenly she felt like the main event of a boxing fixture. The first punch had been thrown and now three interested people awaited her reaction.
    She smiled brightly. ‘How lovely