A Killing Kindness. Reginald Hill

took his own pen from his pocket and followed suit.

      There was another disturbance, more obvious this time, about thirty minutes later.

      Voices were heard distantly upraised. After a while the door opened and a porter came in and spoke quietly to the Mortuary Superintendent who relayed the information to Pascoe.

      ‘There’s a woman outside with a man. She says she’s the girl’s aunt and she’s making a fuss about seeing the body.’

      Pascoe looked at the cadaver on the examination table. The sternum and frontal ribs had been removed and the omentum cut away so that heart, lungs and intestine were visible.

      The pathologist continued with his work, undisturbed by the interruption.