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asked.
    ‘I think it’s a possibility.’
    She nodded. ‘And what about the second murder? Anything yet?’
    The image of the second victim returned to the screen. ‘The victim’s body has been completely flattened. Dr Jones has emailed over some preliminary data.’ Pendragon picked up a folder from the desk nearest the smart board and glanced at the first page. ‘Body is an oblong, 3.5 metres long by just under 2.25 metres at the widest point. It has been flattened to a surprisingly consistent thickness of between 2.3 and 2.4 centimetres. There are a few recognisable anatomical structures.’ He pointed to the image on the board. ‘A row of ribs here, a section of intestine there. And an eye … here. This murder would seem even harder to enact than the first. I’ve spent half the day trying to work out an MO. Then, just before coming in here I received two calls that helped answer a few questions.’ There was an expectant hush.
    ‘Dr Newman called first. Her team found some tracks near the tree and a mud trail that leads away around the graveyard and out across Stepney Green Park to a footpath. Unfortunately, the tracks have been chewed up,so they don’t offer any detail. But then the second call came in. It was from the duty officer at Leytonstone Police Station. A member of the public phoned in to say they had some information about the incident at St Dunstan’s this morning.’
    ‘Information?’ Grant said.
    ‘The witness is a shift-worker. He claims he was walking by the graveyard at about five this morning when he saw someone using a cherry-picker. There was a tarpaulin screen obscuring half the tree. The witness assumed it was the council chopping down a dangerous branch … which I suppose is understandable after the weather we’ve been having. He thought no more about it until his wife told him something had happened in the church grounds. Reckoned someone had hanged himself.’
    ‘A cherry-picker?’ Sergeant Mackleby said. ‘So that’s where the tracks in the mud came from?’
    Pendragon nodded and turned to Towers. ‘Inspector, I want you and Vickers to check out any CCTV footage you can find. There must be cameras on Stepney Way. Any images of that cherry-picker could be worth their weight in gold.’
    Towers nodded.
    ‘Anything else from Forensics?’ Hughes asked.
    ‘Dr Newman has promised to rush through a DNA analysis. I’m hoping to hear from her within the hour,’ Pendragon replied. He flicked off the smart board and perched himself on a table to one side of the screen. Folding his arms, he said, ‘There’s obviously a very clear connection between the two murders.’
    ‘There is?’ said Sergeant Vickers from the back of the room.
    ‘Famous paintings,’ Superintendent Hughes said quietly.
    Vickers turned to Thatcher next to him and shrugged.
    ‘The murder scenes are tableaux.’ Pendragon stared at the blank faces of the Vickers and Thatcher.
    ‘René Magritte?’ Turner said, whirling on his fellow sergeants. ‘Duh!’
    Hughes caught Pendragon’s eye and he allowed himself the faintest of smiles.
    ‘The first murder scene was contrived to copy a famous painting, The Son of Man by the Belgium Surrealist René Magritte,’ Pendragon said. ‘It depicts a man in a black suit and bowler hat with an apple in place of his face. The second murder is another staged affair: The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali.’
    ‘Is that the one with the floppy clocks?’ Inspector Towers asked. ‘My sister had a poster of that on her bedroom wall years ago. I always hated it.’
    ‘It’s all pretty bloody weird, if you ask me,’ commented Sergeant Vickers, who had moved forward to sit on the edge of a desk across from Towers.
    ‘It is,’ Pendragon replied, looking around the room. ‘It’s bloody weird, but it’s real and the connection is irrefutable.’
    ‘So the murderer’s a nut?’ Rob Grant said.
    ‘Depends how you define “nut”, Inspector,’ Pendragon retorted,