Necessary as Blood

case. That alone was enough to make Kincaid want to stir the pot. ‘You have any objection?‘
    ‘I — I was going to look at flats at lunchtime,‘ Cullen said, and Kincaid had the distinct impression he‘d been about to say something else.
    ‘Good for you,‘ Kincaid told him with cheerful bonhomie. ‘About time you made a change, Doug. But I think you‘ll have to do it another day.‘

    After a more thorough look through the case file, Kincaid had rung DI Neal Weller. A brusque message on Weller‘s voicemail informed him that Weller was in court and would return calls as soon as possible.
    ‘Court,‘ Kincaid said to Cullen, who grimaced.
    ‘That might take him out all day. Or longer.‘
    ‘Might not be a bad thing.‘ Kincaid didn‘t mind gathering his own impressions of the case before he discussed it with Weller, starting with the crime scene. Not that he expected to find evidence that the SOCOs had missed, but he always liked to see where a death had taken place, even if he was coming into a case after the fact. It helped him organize his mental landscape.
    ‘We‘ll start with Haggerston Park,‘ he told Cullen. ‘Call down for a car, and I‘ll clear things with the guv‘nor.‘
    ‘Will your personal connection cause any conflict of interest?‘ his chief superintendent, Denis Childs, had asked when Kincaid was shown into his office.
    ‘Not unless our friend Tim Cavendish starts to look like a suspect,‘ Kincaid had answered, joking. In fact, the personal connection might give Kincaid an advantage denied another detective. ‘I‘ll let you know if I think there‘s a problem,‘ he‘d assured Childs.
    Once he‘d finished his meeting with Childs and found the car ready, he had Cullen drive them east, skirting round the top of the City, through Shoreditch and into Bethnal Green.
    Haggerston Park looked benign, if a little faded by the August heat. Young Asian parents strolled with babies in pushchairs; a passing jogger swigged from a water bottle; an elderly white couple walked arm in arm, soaking up the sun.
    As they drove past Hackney City Farm, Kincaid caught the unmistakable whiff of manure. The smell, etched into the sensory circuits of his childhood, triggered a spasm of longing for the dairy fields of Cheshire. And then the thought of home led him to wonder what he would tell his mother the next time she asked about plans for the wedding.
    Gemma had been more and more evasive on the subject, not to mention prickly in general, and now there was the business with her mother... Not that he wasn‘t concerned about Vi, but it worried him deeply that family stresses seemed to make Gemma pull away from him, rather than drawing her closer. At least she‘d been voluble enough in talking to him about this case. Perhaps the investigation would give him an opportunity to get her to open up about whatever was bothering her. If formalizing their relationship was going to change things between them, he‘d rather go on as they were.
    Checking the map against the case report, he directed Cullen into Audrey Street, where they parked and got out. The scene had been cleared. A strip of crime-scene tape hung limply from the iron gate at the park entrance, and a notice to one side held the previous day‘s date and asked that anyone having seen suspicious activity at that location report it to the police helpline.
    Kincaid followed the path, taking in the details, until he reached the section of broken fence still marked off-limits by tape — not that a strip of tape would keep kids and curiosity-seekers at bay.
    ‘A good spot for a rape or a mugging, at least after dark,‘ said Cullen, studying the terrain. ‘Or a drug deal gone wrong, a gang knifing. But odd for a suicide.‘
    ‘Or a murder.‘ Kincaid walked further along, until the trees thinned and he could see the land curving away towards Hackney City Farm. He then went back and examined the taped area, thinking about the scene photos included in the file. ‘What was this guy doing here?‘ he mused. ‘Meeting someone?‘
    ‘And then he just dropped dead?‘ Cullen tested the fence a few feet outside the taped area. ‘I don‘t think the weight of a body falling would have broken the fence.‘
    ‘Unless it was already damaged. We‘ll have to check with the groundskeepers. And I want to talk to the pathologist myself. But first, let‘s have a word with Mr Malik‘s partner.‘

    ‘It‘s not far,‘ said Cullen, having taken over