4 Chapter 3.2

' Yeah , but this wasn't dyed,' answered Harding. 'Celtic, maybe.'

Ebony was still kneeling beside the body, studying the woman's face. Carter stood back and watched. He was marvelling how Ebony could get that close to the smell and not seem to notice it.

'What is it , Ebb?'

' She's got make-up on.'

Harding rubbed the women's cheek with a swab of cotton wool and looked at the resulting red stain on it .

'You're right. Must have been industrial strength to survive this.'

' There are remnants of blue eye-shadow,' said Ebony .

' She's even got some short of black eyelashes painted above her eyes. It's as if she were going to a party.'

' Dressed like what? a pantomime dame?'

Harding looked down the length of the women's body.

' She's had a tough life, whosoever she is. The fish have capitalized on the decayed flesh.' She stopped at the largest of the wounds on the women's thigh. ' But all this tissue destruction wasn't done in the water.'

' Could you walk around with that kind of open wound?' asked Willis.

Harding shook her head in response. ' Can't see how.' She parted the Frayed flesh and opened the edge of one of the wounds on the women's left thigh, the bone was visible.

' What could have caused so many different sites of infection and so deep?' Carter asked as he took photos of the injuries with his phone . Willis helped Harding to turn the body on its side.

' I think these wounds started as ulcers.' Harding turned the victim's arms at the elbows to take a look . 'No obvious needle marks but these large open wounds might have started with skin popping — injecting contaminated heroin under the skin.'

' If she's got that kind of drug abuse history we might find her fingerprints on file or she might be known at the needle exchange. We'll check it out .' Carter said as he moved back from the body . Ebony continued her fascinated examination of the women's face . Harding stood to allow the photographer better access.

'Can you do the post mortem examination today?' Carter had seen enough. He felt the need to get out of the confines of the tent. He wanted to breathe in something other than the putrid flesh of a body that had been at the bottom of the canal for months. Carter knew Willis would be happy to stay another hour or two. She came alive around the dead. 'Yes. This afternoon. I'll give you a call when we're ready to start.'

'Thanks.' They left Harding in the tent.

'The tattoo's got to mean something to someone, Ebb,' said Carter as he and Willis stepped back over the crime scene tape and walked back towards the detectives' pool car: a black BMW. 'We'll get Harding to take a biopsy. The inks used might help us narrow it down to certain tattooists. Did you ask the canal man if he'd seen anything suspicious? He might have seen someone coming to try it for a location. Did you get a statement from him?'

Ebony nodded. 'Yes, but nothing suspicious.' Carter pushed past a journalist who called out 'Excuse me, mate?' as he passed.

'Christ – no – you can't have a frigging interview.'

Carter squared up to him. 'If you vultures don't get out of the way I'll do you for obstructing a police investigation. And I'm not your frigging mate –got it? MOVE.'

The reporter backed off with two hands in the air in a mock show of compliance.

'Just doing our job.'

Ebony looked across at Carter as he shook his head, annoyed. They'd worked together for a year. She knew him well. She knew he'd be cross because the reporter was right and, on most days, Carter would have chatted to the journalists, got them on his side. But today Carter was somewhere dark in his own head. He looked across at her and shook his head, exasperated.

'Sorry.'

'You all right, Guv?'

'Yeah. Sorry – got a lot going on at the moment, Ebb.' 'Guv?'

She raised her eyes towards the car to show where they'd left it and to show Carter that he was going in the opposite direction.

'I know, I know,' he snapped irritably.

Carter got into the driver's seat and waited till Willis shut her passenger door and then reversed at speed, almost hitting the photographer who had just stepped off the kerb to get a photo of them leaving. Willis stayed quiet. She looked across at him. She'd worked with him long enough to know he'd tell her in his own time. She was waiting for him to calm down and get back to what he was good at. Carter was the best 'people person' she knew. Today was an 'off' day.

'You want me to attend the post mortem on my own, Guv? It's no problem.'

'What, and let you have all the fun?' He smiled gratefully. 'No, I'll be all right, Ebb. Nothing like the smell of a post mortem to get things in perspective.'

After the black BMW had passed him on the bridge, the man turned back to look at the white tent below. The fog was just beginning to thin and he could see it shine bright in the wisps of white. He smiled to himself. He was breathless. Something told him today was the day she would finally rise through the dark water to reveal herself to the world – reborn. And the game would begin again.