3 Chapter 3.1

Cater hold back the entrance to the crime scene tent and stooped as he stepped inside, Willis followed. The smell hit Carter so hard that he was in danger of throwing up .He instinctively drew his scarf up over his nose .

'Doctor Harding?'

A blonde haired women in a white forensic suit was kneeling beside the remains of the women, which were bloated and blackened by the water . The women's head was inside a polythene bag. She had wounds as big as teacup that had eaten into her body .

Doctor Harding looked up and nodded. She didn't smile. She wasn't one for automatic gestures of politeness. 'Willis . . .' She handed Ebony a pair of gloves. 'Help me with the body .' A police photographer move around and in between them in the small tent as he looked pictures of the body .

Carter spoke from behind his scarf. 'How old do you put her in, Doc?'

'Mid-twenties.'

'Any birthmarks, operation scars? Anything that might help us to identify her?'

'There's a tattoo running up the outside of her left ankle .' Harding turn the victim's left leg over. 'I think it's something written in Norse. I so something like it once before On a blad-headed man. That time it turned out to be an ancient proverb meaning: A cleaved head no longer plots.'

'Yeah,' said Carter . 'I remember that guy—had it around his crown, didn't he? Drug dealer from Croydon, came up to deal with the Turks on Caledonia Road. It prove to be a perfect guideline for someone to cut the top of his head of like a boiled egg. Let's see if our mermaid show up somewhere on the system .'

'Yes, Guv,' said the photographer.

'Whoever she was , she's definitely undernourished,' said Harding.

'How long's she been in the water?' asked Carter.

'A few months, at least. She went in when the water was warmer. decomposition started but then slowed right down.'

Carter hovered nearer and looked directly down over the body at the plastic bag covering her head . ' Her face looks like something from a waxwork horror museum,' he observed. He moved closer. ' It looks like it's made of cheese.'

The photographers stood where Carter had been to take shots of the head . Carter pulled back.

Harding nodded . 'It's called adipocere–the absence of Oxygen and plenty of moisture inside the bag has causes the fats from her face and her brain matter to fuse , turning off face into soap.'

'Prostitute maybe?' asked Carter . ' A client went to far: got carried away with the bag and killed her by accident then dumped her here?'

'pretty risky getting undressed Hindi middle of King's cross,' Harding answer as she turned the woman's head towards Ebony and search for the best place to begin cutting open the back .

'People enjoy taking risks,' Carter diagreed. 'Might have been a warm summer evening. Maybe this was an experimental sex section gone wrong–he asphyxiates her and then dumps her body straight into the water.'

Harding decided on an Empty place for her scalpel and Ebony help the plastic out away from the woman's face whilst the doctor slip down the centre of the bag and pilled it back gently . She finished cutting the through. Ebony moved the clumped strands of dark Auburn hair away from the woman's face and neck for Harding to get a better look. She splayed them out , Medusa- like.

'Expext . . .' she turned the head to one side–'she wasn't asphyxiated , she was struggled and the bag was an afterthought. Someone used huge force too, they crushed her windpipe and broke the vertebrae enharmonic snapping her spinal column–usual injuries we see in someone who hang themselves, but there was no rope lesions . But there is a necklace protected by the plastic. Harding added as she worked a chain loose that was embedded in the flesh of the neck and eased it free . Turning it still she found the claps , she pulled two rings around with it , threaded onto the chain.

The photographer leant over the body whilst Ebony rested the Rings on her open palm so that they could be photographed . Harding undid the chain and handed it to Ebony to bag up. Ebony showed Carter the Rings as she did so.

'Two very different types , aren't they?' he said.

'Of rings, Guv? Yes , I think one is an antique maybe worth something. Think the other one is cheap.'

'Anything else on her?' asked Carter

'Not that I can see,' answered Harding

'She looked British to you?' asked Carter . 'What about the hair? Red hair is a very popular with Easter European women . We have a lot of those living in London. '