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face was a little shapeless, as if a little extra weight had robbed him of his definition, his features soft, his cheeks fleshy. But his eyes were still sharp and bright and Lucy realized with a little embarrassment that while she was studying him, he’d been doing the same with her. Instinctively, she put her hand up to cover her mouth.
    â€˜I’ve not seen him yet, sir,’ Lucy said. Then added, ‘I know he had some stuff to follow up this morning.’
    â€˜I see,’ Burns said. ‘In that case, we’ll get started, shall we?’ He turned to address the room. ‘Grab your coffees, people, and take a seat.’
    Tara brought Lucy over her cup. ‘Milk and one,’ she said. Lucy nodded, a little flattered that Tara knew how she took her drink.
    Burns took his place at the top of the table and introduced Lucy to the team, then quickly introduced each of them in turn.
    â€˜Mickey, perhaps you’d start us off with the results of the PM?’
    Tara nudged Lucy as Mickey stood up. ‘Cause of death was the cut to the throat. Time of death was sometime on Sunday between eight in the morning and lunchtime, despite her body not being left on the train tracks until that evening.’
    â€˜Which means the killer held on to the body until dark before moving her,’ a DC commented unnecessarily.
    â€˜The stomach contents included peanuts,’ Mickey continued. ‘But little else. She didn’t seem to have eaten much. There were signs of sexual contact in the hours before death. Significant signs, the pathologist said. He’d taken samples for testing, along with toxicology samples for drugs and drink.’
    â€˜Was she raped then?’
    â€˜He wouldn’t rule out consensual,’ he said.
    â€˜Not that that means anything,’ Burns commented. ‘Anything else?’
    â€˜That’s all he had to start with. The full report will be sent on when it’s done.’
    â€˜What about SOCO, Tara?’
    Unlike Mickey, Tara stayed in her seat, clearing her throat before addressing them. ‘Blood smearing on her clothes suggested she’d been wrapped in plastic sheeting for the transport of her remains. And they pulled dog hairs from her boots. Black dog hairs.’
    â€˜DS Black, maybe you can update us on the work you’d done, to put it in context for the team.’
    Lucy nodded. ‘I’m afraid there’s not a huge amount to tell, sir. She went missing last Thursday. She didn’t come back to the unit from school but that wasn’t entirely unusual.’
    â€˜She was in residential care?’
    â€˜Yes. Social Services contacted us and we started looking for her in the usual haunts: shopping centres, the Walls, places like that.’
    â€˜Had she run away before?’
    â€˜A number of times,’ Lucy said, nodding. ‘Initially we assumed it was more of the same. She usually came back the next day – often she’d spent the night with friends, boyfriends maybe.’
    â€˜Did she have a boyfriend?’
    â€˜Nobody serious. Not that we know of so far.’
    â€˜But she
was
sexually active?’
    â€˜She was fifteen, sir,’ Lucy said.
    Burns nodded, jotting down notes as Lucy spoke.
    â€˜So you put out the press appeal?’
    â€˜After she went missing, the social workers in the residential unit found her phone in her room which panicked them. They alerted us and we did the press release,’ Lucy said. ‘Then someone found out about the connection with her father yesterday and the papers ran with it.’
    â€˜Any idea who told them? Could it have been one of us?’ He glanced around the room as he spoke. ‘One of you’ was actually what he meant, and Lucy knew it. PPU had been handling the case – herself and Tom Fleming essentially.
    â€˜I wouldn’t think so, sir,’ she replied. ‘Derry’s a small city. Everyone knows everyone else here.