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you give us a hand here please, Graham and bag the uniform as we remove it.” The photographer stepped forward as they lifted the material from the corpse. “Jesus Christ!” Kathy hissed.
    “What the hell?” Stirling whispered beneath his breath. He had seen some sights in his time but this one took his breath away. 
    Annie inhaled sharply and looked at Kathy confused. At first she thought the victim had been wearing a strangely patterned body-stocking but as she focused on the details it became clear. “What the hell is that?” the photographer bagged up the clothes and then snapped dozens of shots from all angles. Stirling took a step closer and stared at the intricate scabbed carvings.
    Kathy was visibly shaken and she swallowed hard to compose herself before continuing. “On removal of the uniform we can see that some form of ancient text, may be Greek or Hebrew in origin, has been scratched into the skin from the wrists to the neck and down to the ankles, covering the entire body. At first glance there are several thousand words carved into the victim with a very fine implement. There appears to be huge tranches of text ‘written’ on the body.” Kathy paused and pointed to a bedside table next to Annie. Annie turned to look at it. There was a glass tumbler placed on it and a thin bloodstained handle protruded from it. “On the bedside table we found a tumbler which contains liquid and blood. The liquid has an odour of antiseptic. Placed into the tumbler is a dental implement called a skin hook. First impressions are that the skin hook was used to ‘carve’ words into the victim’s skin.”
    Annie stood up and stepped back from the bed. She blew out a lung full of tainted air reluctant to breathe it in anymore. “Tell me she was dead when he did this.”
    A brief shake of Kathy’s head indicated the opposite. “No she was alive through all this,” she sighed and pointed to the deep welts which cut into her wrists. “She fought hard to get free. This would have taken days to complete,” she said shaking her head in disbelief. “When was she last seen alive?”
    “Saturday night,” Stirling answered. “She worked an early shift and told a colleague that she was going out that night with a friend. A neighbour said she saw her leaving about seven o’clock. She said that she was dressed to go out for the night. We’re still trying to trace where she went to and who with.”
    “Her sergeant didn’t miss her at work?” Annie frowned.
    “She called in sick, Guv.”
    “What?”
    “She wasn’t due back on shift until Tuesday lunchtime. They have a sick call logged on Monday night saying she had food poisoning.” Stirling shrugged. “Unfortunately, there is no record of who made the call. Could she have been dead already?”   
    “Between rigor, lividity and her decomp, I would say she’s been dead for less than seventy-two hours.”
    “So she was alive Monday night when the call was made.”
    “Which gives the killer at least three days alone with her?”
    “At least. The severe bruising here on her thighs indicates repeated sexual assaults.” She pointed to a dark patch on the bed. “We could have a break here. I’ve swabbed some seminal fluid from the bed but apart from that, I can’t be more specific until I get her back to the lab.”
    “He left fluids?” Annie frowned. “That’s odd. The place has been cleaned down. Are you sure it’s seminal?”
    “I think I can safely say so but,” she shrugged and turned to her CSI.
    “I know,” Annie said. “You can’t say until you get her to the lab?”
    Kathy shrugged. “Let’s get her to the lab.” The CSI nodded and walked out of the room to fetch assistance and a body-bag. “I really need to pick this room apart with my team, Annie,” she lowered her voice. “I am not a happy bunny.”
    “What are you thinking?”
    “The entire scene except for the pentagram on the wall has been wiped,” she looked around, “but