Have you ever been to London?" I asked. "No," said Ash. "I've never even been in town before. Our dad doesn't hold with that sort of thing." "Don't w… - Ben Aaronovitch

“They’re all so ridiculously young,” said Nightingale.
“They” were mostly Police Staff, what we’re not supposed to call civilian workers any more—analysts and data entry specialists—who’d got the boot when the government decided that in the light of an increased security threat what London needed was a smaller police force.

And having made sure my attention was focused in one direction the universe, which likes a good laugh, smacked me in the face from the other side.

Technically, you don't have to have a corpse to convict for murder but detectives always feel better when they've found your actual victim—they're superstitious like that.