麻豆社

Two response officers are called to a flat in Hereford where 54-year-old Jamie Gawler has been found dead in an armchair, covered with a towel. The injuries to his body are extensive, and a post-mortem reveals blunt force trauma to the head, neck and chest, with all but three of his ribs broken. A table leg found at the scene is thought, possibly, to be the weapon used. DCI Gareth Lougher leads a team of 35 detectives and specialists in Operation Kingsbury.

With no witnesses to the attack itself, detectives begin piecing together Jamie's final days. CCTV and house-to-house enquiries establish that he had recently allowed a stranger to stay at his flat. A neighbour who had met the man describes someone who had talked his way into Jamie's life, claiming he had nowhere to go. He was charming on the surface but left her with an uneasy feeling.

Financial data proves crucial. Bank card transactions begin to trace the movements of a man who had been with Jamie in the days before his death, placing him at locations around Hereford and ultimately leading detectives to a train station in south Wales, where a collection of items, including Jamie's own bank card and phone, were found alongside cards belonging to a man named Matthew Jonathan.

When a fingerprint recovered from a vodka bottle at the scene is run through the database, it returns a match to Jonathan, who has 18 prior convictions including strangulation and assault, and was released from prison just six weeks earlier. Detectives launch a manhunt to find him.

CCTV from Hereford train station shows Jonathan leaving the city the day before Jamie's body was discovered. Alongside him is an unidentified man in a red cap. Local community officer PC Lee Phillips recognises the man immediately, and he is quickly traced and interviewed. He tells detectives that Jonathan had a thousand pounds in cash on him, admitted he had hurt someone badly and said he needed to get out of Hereford.

Jonathan is found by police in south Wales following a 999 call about a man who had collapsed. He is arrested for murder at the scene. In custody, as his photographs are taken, officers discover the words 'Natural Born Killer' tattooed across his back. In his first interview he gives largely no comment responses, though he's quick to insist the incident was not his fault.

When analysts examine Jonathan's phone, they find a video that stops detectives in their tracks. Filmed during what appears to be a separate assault on an unknown man in a bus shelter, Jonathan is heard saying he has already had someone die on him that day.

DCI Lougher immediately orders a priority search to identify and locate the person in the video.