“Exactly.”  Smith knew the Bible.  Millar wondered if there was any clue to be had in the quotations, and why the killer had not used a direct quotation this time.

As he bent over the body, the Forensic Officer noticed that there was no smell of vinegar on this victim.  There was also no sign that a struggle had taken place in the area.  Noticeably, there was not enough blood.  Considering that her throat had been cut, there were no arterial spurt marks on the walls or on the ground to indicate that this was the scene of the crime.  They had checked the area by spraying it with Luminol, a substance which became flourescent when in contact with blood.  Had the killer cleaned up, there would still have been something there.  Some tell-tale signs.   Blood becomes very difficult to deal with once it has been shed, since it begins to clot.  It adheres fixedly to everything.  Blood can become trapped in cracks and crevices.  Even when the killer tries to wash it away, it can remain, though watered down.  Or it can be washed into the gutters and adhere to the sides of drains. 

 This was definitely a secondary scene.  This young woman had been killed elsewhere and her body had been brought there.  Signs of lividity confirmed this.  When someone is killed, the blood settles in the lowest part of the body and coagulates, creating lividity or redness in the skin.  This woman had died face down, with her head tilted to one side, as there were signs of lividity on the right side of her face, and on her chest and abdomen. 

The other victims had been left where they had been killed.  A few similarities, but also a few differences to the modus operandi, but did it mean anything?

Detective Inspector Millar mulled it all over as he drove back to the station.  ‘Why would the killer change his modus operandi?  Did he kill this one in, or too near his own home and have to move her?  Did he want to draw us away from something?  What could it be?’

Bill Weatherup was parked just up the street and waiting and watching.  Bill was one of those reporters who made a life’s work of looking for that one big scoop, the one which would make a name for him, the story the others didn’t get.  The Councillors were arriving.  David Markley from the D.U.P. was driving through the raised fluorescent yellow barrier.  The Alliance Party member for North Belfast was just behind.