Now that she was back at work Izzy seemed determined to throw herself back into the job as much as she could. That didn’t stop Jessica from regretting bringing her when she saw the state the body was in. The Scene of Crime team had already attended the house and taken what they needed and Jessica had only managed a quick look at the corpse before it was covered and taken out. It would have to be identified formally but, seeing as she had spent the past few days staring at photos of Oliver, she had no doubt it was him.

‘Any idea what happened?’ Jessica asked the Scene of Crime officer.

The man was clearly in a hurry but stopped for a few moments to talk to them. ‘I wouldn’t want to say a hundred per cent but probably some sort of asphyxia. I’m sure you’ll hear for sure in a day or two.’

Everyone who investigated crimes was used to dealing with knife attacks and Jessica had seen various horrific aftermaths, where people had been left with parts of the body hanging out. Gun crime had been increasing in the city in recent years too, especially as their Longsight base was in the middle of a known gang area. Despite that, there was always something she found more brutal about crimes involving suffocation.

Jessica could vividly remember being shown a public awareness video at school. It was during an assembly and she had spent the first few minutes giggling and messing around. But her eyes had soon been drawn to the screen, where the tape showed two young girls playing with a plastic bag. It warned of the danger of playing around with such a dangerous object and, even though it was completely overblown, large parts of it remained in the back of Jessica’s mind even now.

She still remembered interviewing a woman who had reported her husband for domestic abuse after he had punched and kicked her, then slammed her up against a wall and throttled her. As the woman tried to talk about the events, her voice drifted between being audible and not, while Jessica could not stop looking at the purple and black mark around her throat.

Stabbing or shooting someone could be an instinctive act but actually choking them to death, however you did it, was a fierce, savage choice.

After the body had been taken away, Jessica and Izzy were led into the living room by a support officer, who introduced her to the house owner.

Kayleigh Pritchard acknowledged the detectives with a blank nod. Jessica would have guessed her to be somewhere in her early forties. She was still wearing a uniform from a local supermarket, her dyed black hair hanging limply around her shoulders. The woman was cradling a mug in her hands, her legs wrapped underneath her as she sat in what looked like an uncomfortable position in an armchair.

Kayleigh seemed unwilling to meet Jessica or Izzy’s eyes, instead staring into whatever was left at the bottom of her mug.

‘I know you’ve had quite the shock,’ Jessica began. ‘But, if it’s okay, we would just like to run through your afternoon with you.’

Kayleigh talked them through how she had arrived home from work and found a hole in the glass of her back door. She spoke about how she had been burgled in the past but, because nothing seemed to have been taken, she assumed it was just kids messing around.

‘I was worried about my laptop,’ Kayleigh added. ‘I’ve got all these photos from nights out. There are pictures from when I was younger too. All sorts of stuff I didn’t want to lose. When I saw the broken window, I assumed my computer and television and everything would have been taken. It was a relief when they were still there but then . . .’

Jessica could see the parallels to what had happened at the Sextons’ property, although that scene had taken on a different light because they now knew Oliver’s fate. They would have to look at whether someone had knocked on the door and then attacked the babysitter. Although they had found no signs of a struggle, Oliver didn’t have the largest of physiques and could easily have been overpowered, especially if he had been surprised. Jessica was struggling to concentrate on Kayleigh’s story, and had to stop her mind wandering back to the previous scene.

Kayleigh lived alone and had been in the house for around five years. After checking the necessary details such as her workplace, Jessica asked the woman to show her the back door. The Scene of Crime team would have already been through the house but Jessica didn’t like relying on photographs, preferring her own memory.

She could not stop herself shivering as they entered the kitchen. Kayleigh instantly apologised. ‘I’m sorry, I cleaned up. I know I shouldn’t have but I thought it was kids at the time. I didn’t think it was worth getting you involved.’

‘Did you tell the crime scene team that?’

‘Yes. They took all the glass and everything and used that powder stuff on the door handle but I had already touched that too.’

‘I’m sure they’ve got everything they need,’ Jessica replied as reassuringly as she could.

As Jessica had been checking the door, Izzy had been pacing around the kitchen. ‘Was there any stone or brick or something like that inside?’ she asked.

Kayleigh shook her head. ‘I don’t remember, your people asked the same thing but I’ve not cleaned up anything like that.’

Jessica had been thinking along the same lines. It meant whoever had broken in had likely planned what they were going to do. Along with the brutality of the method of killing Oliver, she was concerned at the way the perpetrator had made it hard for themselves to leave the body. Dumping it in the canal, leaving it in a ditch or even burying it in a shallow grave somewhere were all relatively easy ways to dispose of a body, but someone had gone out of their way to ensure it would be found – and, apparently, left it specifically in this house. Jessica wondered if Kayleigh realised the implication.

‘Is there anyone you know could have a grudge against you?’ Jessica asked, not wanting to spell it out exactly.

Kayleigh had clearly thought it through already and shook her head. ‘I’ve been trying to think. It’s not the best neighbourhood, but there’s no one around here I’ve had a problem with.’

‘Any upset ex-boyfriends or anything like that?’

‘No, I’ve been single for a while. I keep myself to myself, go to work, come home. Sometimes I’ll go out with the girls from work but we never get in any trouble. Every now and then we get a bit of noise at night time but I don’t even complain about that. You never know how people are going to react.’

Although Jessica had suspected that would be the answer, she also thought there must be something which related either to Kayleigh or the house itself which had invited this. Until she could get a team of people looking into things, she held her tongue.

Jessica indicated towards the woman’s uniform and asked what she did at the supermarket. Kayleigh worked in the bakery section and appeared enthusiastic as she spoke about it. That type of day-in, day-out familiarity would have driven Jessica crazy but she had always held a curious admiration for people who were quite happy to do that. Adam was the opposite. He had recently moved from being with the forensic science service to working at the university. He did small amounts of teaching, while generally helping out with the research projects and he enjoyed the routine of having certain days and times when he was working.

Because Jessica knew the name of the victim, even though it wasn’t official, she decided to try a new tack. ‘Do you know someone named Oliver Gordon?’ she asked.

Kayleigh didn’t seem to realise that the name could be the identity of the victim. She stuck out her bottom lip, shaking her head slowly. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘How about an Owen or Gabrielle Gordon?’

The woman thought for a few moments, then shook her head again. ‘I’ve never heard of them. Should I have?’