Collins frowned in confusion. ‘But I thought the theory was that the bodies had been kept in cold storage, Miller’s for at least two years. That doesn’t tally with this kind of decomposition.’

Matthews nodded. ‘Cold storage only slows down the process. It’s like putting a piece of chicken in your fridge. If you don’t eat it, it will still go off and start to smell after a few days. To stop the decomposition process completely you have to freeze the body. If you freeze a body, it will last more or less indefinitely. We only do that once we’ve carried out an autopsy. I can’t do anything with a body that has been turned into a block of ice. I can’t even get a tissue sample.’

Anderson coughed gently, a subtle way of asking Matthews to get on with it. She smiled politely.

‘The first thing I want to do is to confirm what might seem to be completely obvious but needs to be stated for the official record. In my opinion all three victims were murdered by the same person or persons. The tools used to sever the hands and head, as well as those used to open up the chest cavity and remove the internal organs, seem to be identical in each case.’

Matthews’s gloved fingers began to move across each area of the body as she described it. ‘The neck has been cut through the skin and deep tissues right down to the point of separation, which is between the fifth and sixth vertebrae. The sixth remains in situ and is deeply notched.’

Her fingers moved down to Chadwick’s chest. ‘The intercostals between the fourth, fifth and sixth ribs have been cut through, exposing the thorax. The pericardium is open, and the heart and lungs are missing. There is also an absence of thoraco-abdominal viscera.

‘All the skin cuts, particularly those at the neck and edges of the chest cavity, show distinct ecchymosis. Now I want to –’

Anderson held up a hand. ‘I’m sorry, you’re talking about bruising, right?’

Matthews flashed another smile. ‘Right.’

‘But surely that would only happen if the cuts were made while the victim was alive.’

‘That’s correct. And I’ve found similar bruising patterns on all three bodies.’

‘My God,’ gasped Collins. ‘You mean someone did this to them while they were fully conscious?’

‘Not necessarily. Alive doesn’t mean conscious. We can’t jump to any conclusions. We’ll have to wait for a full toxicology report before we know which, if any, drugs were in their systems. It’s possible they may have been sedated, but in any event they would probably have passed out from shock and loss of blood soon after the first incision?

Anderson scratched his chin. ‘When it comes to the removal of the head and the hands, do you have any idea what the killer used?’

Matthews picked up one of Chadwick’s forearms and examined the bloody stump. ‘We’re going to do a further procedure after the main autopsy to remove the radius and ulna of each arm, along with the exposed cervical vertebrae, to make a better determination. My initial thoughts are that it looks like the work of a small saw. There are serrations visible and you wouldn’t have those with a knife or an axe.’

Collins joined the conversation. ‘Would that be something specifically medical? A specialist instrument of some kind?’

‘Possibly, but to be honest there are a number of craft tools and kitchen implements that would do the job just as well. However, a straight-bladed knife was used to do this.’

She pointed to the mutilated genitals. Collins noticed that both Anderson and Hill winced visibly as they gazed at the remains of Chadwick’s manhood.

‘What we’re trying to get at,’ said Anderson, looking away from the victim’s crotch, ‘is whether we’re talking about someone with medical or surgical training.’

‘I can’t give you a definitive answer, I’m afraid, but my instinct would be to say yes. Surgeons tend to make very bold, clean incisions through tissue. Experience teaches them exactly how much pressure is needed and they will often go through the skin one layer at a time. An amateur cutting open a body for the first time is likely to either over- or underestimate the amount of pressure needed. That might lead to multiple-entry incisions – hesitation marks – or possibly to damage of the internal organs or ribs from pressing down too hard.

‘I haven’t found anything like that in this case, but that isn’t totally conclusive. Surgeons are taught how to open up a body in a way that allows life to be preserved. If the intention is to kill, the level of skill needed drops away dramatically. Your average family butcher would know enough anatomy to accomplish what has been done here.’

Anderson had moved down towards Chadwick’s feet. ‘What are these marks here near the ankles?’

‘I was just getting to those,’ said Matthews as Hill and Collins moved down the table to get a better look. ‘They’re from ligatures. Identical marks appear on all three bodies.’

The marks were dark brown in colour and had a vivid plum-red band on either side. The skin had broken in parts, and yet more maggots could be seen slipping around in the wounds. ‘The width of those marks – that’s the width of the rope or cable used,’ said Matthews. ‘You’ll notice they don’t circle each ankle completely but are in fact confined to the outside part of the legs. This indicates that a single ligature was used to bind both ankles.’

‘The marks are raised on the side nearest the ankles,’ said Anderson. ‘Does that mean the ligature was uneven? Is it something we can identify?’

‘Actually, it means that at some point the victims were suspended upside down or dragged along the ground with their entire weight supported by their ankles.’

Matthews called over an assistant and together they raised Chadwick so that his back was visible. ‘There are also marks across the top of the shoulders and on the buttocks; these seem to indicate that at some point the body was dragged along the ground, probably around the time it was placed into the car. Once again, the other two bodies have similar marks. I’ve taken samples of the grit embedded in the skin to help isolate a location.’

Once they had finished with Chadwick, Matthews showed the team the similarities on the bodies of Edward Miller and then the unknown third victim.

‘You haven’t said anything about cause of death yet,’ asked Anderson.

‘Without the heads I’m reluctant to make a firm statement, but it seems that all three died in the same fashion. From exsanguination.’

‘They bled to death,’ said Collins flatly.

‘Exactly. There is very little blood left in any of the bodies and it must have gone somewhere. The severing of the neck would have opened up the carotid artery but there are also blood stains on the outside of the skin of the chest. Your crime scene, wherever it is, is going to be awash with blood.’

There was a pause while the members of the team took in the new information.

‘Is it possible,’ asked DI Hill, looking up from his notebook, ‘that all this has been done deliberately in an attempt to make it impossible to carry out a proper autopsy?’

Matthews shook her head slowly. ‘I really don’t think so. Although it’s going to make it almost impossible to determine a precise cause of death, there is no doubt that this is a murder we are looking at. That kind of subterfuge would only really be necessary if you were trying to fake a suicide or something like that.

‘Besides, this kind of thing is more common than you think. Jack the Ripper took out his victims’ organs; so did Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Chase and several others. Having said that, however, none of what has happened goes any way towards making my job easier.’

Collins slowly walked around the table holding the body of the third victim, the first of the group to do so. ‘What’s this mark here?’ The others gathered around and saw that Collins was pointing to what appeared to be a pale smudge on the outside of the man’s thigh, though it was partly obscured by a patch of dried blood and the fluids leaking out of the body.