‘Sly shit hides behind internet technology. I can see the headlines now,’ said Clay. The tension in the room dipped and Ferguson looked at Clay with more than a glimmer of thanks in his hangdog eyes. ‘How about we look at your pictures, Dave?’

Clay took out the first photograph of Sandra O’Day’s body, beginning to look bloated and grey, captured in a bed of reeds at the water’s edge, skinned and scalped in exactly the same manner as Annie Boyd.

‘The handiwork of the bastard we refer to as The Ghoul. Sandra had been in the water for days before she was discovered by a man out walking in a beauty spot one early morning. It was a very hot day, and although it was in the cool of the morning, he was drawn to the body by the smell. He was on the verge of hysterics when he called emergency services.

‘We flooded the area with every available officer and officers were drafted in from Greater Manchester Police. We combed every blade of grass. Nothing.’ Colour rose in DCI Ferguson’s cheeks and throat.

‘How did you identify your victim?’ asked Clay.

‘We identified her because her mother had reported her as missing. It was a process of elimination. She had a birth mark on the inside of her left thigh. We brought Mrs O’Day into the mortuary, covered the body from the neck upwards. Jesus, I can still hear her screams.’

‘Dave,’ said Clay. ‘What date did she go missing? And when did you find her?’

A look of pure regret passed through Ferguson’s eyes.

‘Her mother contacted us on August 1st. Our response, unfortunately, was a standard one. We listed it but did nothing about it. What could we do? She was an adult and her mother said she’d been missing for six hours, not picking up her phone, not calling home, which she did religiously. She was discovered on August 11th.’

Clay did a mental sum and asked, ‘How long did the coroner say she’d been in the water?’

‘At least four days, five even.’

‘So Sandra was held captive for five to six days?’ said Clay.

‘If the coroner’s report’s worth the shit it’s supposed to, yeah. Her injuries and the state of her body. She’d been dead for days.’

‘Did you have any suspects?’

‘None. No CCTV. No Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras. One theory went that The Ghoul had dodged CCTV and carried the body to the water. Sandra O’Day wasn’t a big woman and we proposed that he was a bodybuilder or someone who dealt with heavy weights in their job, both even.’

‘Do you think he was local to the Warrington area?’

Ferguson shook his head.