'Maybe. But exposure probably took place some time ago, years possibly.'
'Still, I think it's time we called the police, don't you?'
The detective sergeant's name was Sean Murphy. A man of no more than thirty-three in a crumpled suit with a shirt open at the collar, tousled hair and a thin beard that ran along his jaw-line to hide the first signs of sag under his chin. And when he turned to the side, Jenny saw he was wearing a miniature diamond stud at the top of his left ear.
They stood around the empty drawer in the refrigerator as if it might yield some clue. Murphy said, 'How do you know which is which?'
'They're all toe-tagged,' Andy said. 'And we keep a separate record on the whiteboard over there.'
'Ever get mix-ups?'
'I couldn't say - it's only my fourth day here.'
Murphy said, 'Oh,' and nodded, as if that might explain what had happened.
Jenny said, 'It's very rare. Dr Kerr is adamant that the body went missing overnight. There's no record of any undertaker having been here during that time or having signed for a body. I think we can assume it's been stolen.'
'Any idea who might have done it?' Murphy said.
'None at all,' Jenny said. 'We've had maybe twenty-five groups of relatives through here in the past week, all of whom have missing daughters. None of them ID'd her. We've got more who were meant to be coming in tomorrow.'
'And you've no idea who she is?'
Andy shook his head.
Jenny said, 'The families have all been put in touch with a lab who are running DNA tests.'
'Uh-huh.' Murphy reached out with his foot and nudged the drawer shut with the toe of his loafer. 'Have we got any pictures of this body?'
Andy said, 'I can email some over to you.'
'It'd be good.' He glanced up and down the corridor. 'What about this guy who was meant to be looking after the place?'
'He went home at eight. He'll be back on a cleaning shift at midday.'
Murphy rubbed a hand over his mouth and scratched his whiskers while pulling a face. 'What's he like, this bloke?'
'Very reliable, according to the other staff.'
Jenny guessed what was coming next and interjected to save the detective the trouble. 'If you're wondering whether he might have abused the body in some way, I'd say it's unlikely. The eye sockets were empty, most of the abdomen was missing and last time I was here it didn't smell too good. If you have a look around there are plenty more attractive propositions.'
'I'll take your word.' He gave her a leering smile, his eyes still shot through with broken veins from the previous night's excess. 'No cameras or anything, I suppose?'
'Not in here,' Andy said, 'only in the hospital's main reception and maternity unit. It's unlikely they would have passed any.'
'There'll be some out in the street I expect. I guess we ought to get a team down here, see if these body snatchers left any prints behind. Been a lot of people through this morning?'
'Five or six,' Andy said.
Pulling out his phone, Murphy said, 'Shit. There's no fucking reception in here. Where's yours?'
'Wouldn't you like to know more about the body?' Andy said. 'I can't prove it forensically, but there's a chance she could have been a murder victim.'
'We'll do all that stuff later when you write your statements.'
'Could I get on with that now? I've got a busy day.'
Murphy dipped his chin and turned to look at him with raised eyebrows. 'I don't think so, my friend - you're a suspect.'
Jenny said, 'I don't know how much you had to drink last night, Mr Murphy, but I hope you didn't drive here.'
Murphy opened his mouth to answer back, but Jenny caught him with a sharp look and said, 'Ask nicely and Dr Kerr might let you use the phone in his office.'
The detective sniffled and slouched off in search of a signal.
Andy said, 'Is he serious? What would I want with a body?'
'Ignore him. He's hungover.'
A few moments later Murphy reappeared at the end of the corridor and called out to them, 'What's the name of this lab doing the DNA tests?'
Jenny stopped herself from slapping him down again. She'd complain to his superintendent later, get him to teach him some manners. 'Meditect. They're out by Parkway.'
'Interesting. They just burned down.'
It was early afternoon by the time Jenny made it back to the office. She could have cut and run sooner, but Andy had looked so bewildered as a team of forensics officers and several more detectives swarmed over his mortuary that she felt compelled to hold his hand. They had both made statements and Alison had emailed over the details of all those who had viewed the body or had expressed an interest in doing so.
Initial reports had been sketchy, but over the course of the morning it emerged that Meditect, which was housed in a small industrial unit in a business park, had been very skilfully razed to the ground. Alarm cables had been cut and diesel oil pumped through the ventilation system and set alight. Another fire had been started on nearby wasteland, which distracted the fire brigade for vital minutes during which catastrophic damage was caused to the testing lab. Its entire contents had been destroyed.
Jenny and Andy went together to the hospital's histology department to track down the blood and tissue samples from the thyroid tumour he had sent up for analysis, and came upon a scene of unfolding chaos. Several racks of samples appeared to have gone missing from their chill cabinets overnight. Among them were the Jane Doe's. The in/out log on the card-swipe system showed that a junior technician had been present in the lab for seven minutes at four a.m. She swore that she had been in bed at the time. Murphy came up to speak to her in person, but she broke down and asked to speak to a solicitor. The last Jenny saw of her, she was being led away by two constables.
The Jane Doe's DNA had been erased from the record. Even the inside of the refrigerator drawer had been sprayed with industrial bleach. There was no physical trace of her left in existence, and whoever had arranged it had been thorough, well resourced and far cleverer than most criminals.
Alison was completely caught up in the drama. Every five minutes she was on the phone to another of her ex-colleagues, fishing for an update and exchanging excited gossip. Wild and extravagant theories about the identity of the Jane Doe were already proliferating.
Jenny was opening an email sent from the office of the Home Secretary when Alison bustled in with the latest exciting titbit. 'The lab assistant they arrested - she claims she had her pass stolen when she went to the canteen yesterday morning, but it turned up again in the afternoon.'
'What's she saying - that someone cloned it?'
'It's possible. It's just like a credit card - once through a reader and you've got a copy in minutes.'
'Where do you get a reader?'
'A few pounds on the internet. It seems complicated, but it's easy. Anyone with half a brain could do it - happens at petrol stations all the time.'
Jenny said, 'It's not easy working out where the samples in the histology lab are stored, believe me. They knew what they were looking for.'
'Apparently there were several in and outs with her card yesterday afternoon. If she's telling the truth, it looks as if someone was coming and going, getting the lie of the land.'
Jenny was only half listening. The email she had just opened was from the Permanent Secretary informing her that the Home Secretary agreed that it was very much in the public interest that the disappearance of Nazim
