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When Jess arrived at ST John the Evangelist Church, on Ball Haye Road, Rose had already set up a taped perimeter and the CSI team had been working the scene for over an hour.

Hastily, Jess suited up behind the police tape. ‘Really sorry about that, bloody phone was on silent with vibrate turned off, God knows how, I feel such a muppet now,’ she said to Rose.

‘Don’t worry, it can happen to anyone. You’re here now, that’s all that matters.’

‘What’s it like in there?’ Jess asked with trepidation.

Rose shook her head. ‘Pretty nasty, her throats been slashed, there’s blood everywhere.’

Swallowing hard, Jess felt the sausages and bacon regurgitate.

Rose smirked inappropriately. ‘Good breakfast?’

‘Er, it’s coming back now you’ve told me that,’ she gulped again.

‘I’ve got some antacid tablets in my bag; I’ll sort you out after.’

Knowing floors contained most of the evidence within a crime scene, the two detectives cautiously traversed the stepping plates towards the stained- glass windows inside St Johns.

‘Bloody hell, Jeff,’ Jess grimaced at the gruesome site of the bloodstained body of a middle-aged homeless woman. Seemed Rose had played it down, the cut was from ear to ear, and blood pooled around her on the Minton Hollins floor tiles like a scene from a horror movie.

‘The blade must have been surgically sharp, it’s sliced all the way through the dermis layers, ligaments, as well as the windpipe beneath those and cut into the thyroid gland: one of the worst I’ve ever seen: terrible wound,’ he said recoiling, his eyes widening.’

‘How long do you reckon she’s been dead?’ Jess asked.

‘Given the coagulation, she's been dead for a few hours. The pathologist will give you a better assessment.’

‘Take a punt?’ Jess asked him.

‘The coagulation process after death is influenced by various factors: the body's position, temperature, and the time elapsed since death. The coagulated blood may start to break down due to the action of enzymes and other post-mortem changes. At a guess I’d say over eight hours.’

‘Any signs of struggle?’ asked Rose.

The CSI nodded. ‘Defence wound. The fingers on her right hand are deeply cut across the palm side; she must have grabbed the blade.’

‘Poor woman would have been petrified,’ Jess said, looking around the church at the yellow crime scene markers. ‘Anything else?’

‘No murder weapon or ID, and we’re still working the latent evidence. Maybe the killer left prints. Definitely left bloodied footprints leading away from the body towards that exit, but we haven’t examined them closely yet,’ He said moving to a doorway at the back of the church, above which, another sinister biblical message was sprayed in red.

‘Different MO regarding the victim; same MO regarding that,’ he said pointing to the message. It read, “Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them! They will be paid back for what their hands have done.”

Below it was another crude cross in a circle.

‘What do you make of it?’ asked Jeff.

Jess read the biblical phrase again with a sense of unease. ‘I’m convinced we’re dealing with the same killer. Given the context of the two messages it seems to me these are revenge killings.’

‘And you think Paul Meredith is a potential? Pity we couldn’t find any forensics placing him at the Rosalind Engineering works murder’ the CSI said.

Jess sighed. ‘He’s still not off the hook. The bloke certainly had a clear motive to kill Gary Turner, but until we get an ID on this poor woman, I’m keeping an open mind.’

‘So you’ll be hauling Paul Meredith back in?’

‘Oh, yeah; first port of call. Call me as soon as you have anything on the footprints?’ Jess said.

‘Hang on; I’ll give you a quick assessment,’ Jeff said padding over to his field kit bag. He retrieved a ruler. Then knelt and took a measurement. ‘Size eights I’d say.’

‘The same as the footprints at Gary Turner’s crime scene?’ Recognition flashed across Jess’s face as she connected the dots. The missing peace in the crime puzzle was now unmistakably in view. ‘I think the victim could be Gary Turner's girlfriend, Danielle Harper!’

‘Why?’ Rose asked.

‘Shaun Brighton said they were together.’

‘Makes sense given they nicked his Monkey Dust and give him a kicking,’ Rose said.

‘I want him brought back in.’

‘But there wasn’t any evidence to place him at Gary Turner’s crime scene,’ Rose said puzzled.

‘I don’t think he’s as stupid as he makes out. Somethings not right here.’

‘Maybe Paul Meredith paid Brighton to murder them both, desperate druggies will do anything to make a few quid to score with,’ Rose said theorising.

‘I’m now convinced we’re dealing with the same killer,’ Jess said.