The Police National Computer had nothing on a man named Kirk Junker, so they checked the passport office and Interpol. The guy didn’t exist, at least not on their records. It was another red flag. They contacted the office for census records and got them to run a check. He didn’t turn up.

Meanwhile, Kelly arranged to re-interview the members of Fred’s group regarding their ex-associate. She also arranged for a police artist to visit Fred and Sandra to get a workable image drawn. Joe had told them that he hadn’t seen Kirk Junker for a good five or six years, his appearance could be wildly different now, but it was a chance still.

She had DC Emma Hide compile a list of all families named Junker in the country. There weren’t many. Junker was indeed a Germanic surname and its origins referred to a noble man. Without context, it meant nothing.

In her office, Kelly brought up the file on William Beverley, the missing boy from 2003. She recognised his photo from the poster. There was also a picture of his mother, Edna, and somebody had added to the file recently that she was deceased. Kelly read on. It read in much the same format as the case she’d read from 2010 just last week. That had also been a twelve-year-old boy. The Kevin Good case had gone cold, too.

Her telephone rang and it was Ted. She was grateful for the break. Reading about missing twelve-year-old boys was depressing.

‘Hi Ted.’

‘Good morning, Kelly. I’ve got some news for you. It’s something that niggled me when I did the post-mortem operation on Mary Hales.’

‘Go on,’ Kelly said.

‘I was going over the photographs for my final report. Sometimes I spot something new. In Mary’s case, there was a lot to consider.’

‘I know. It must have been one of your longest ones, was it?’

‘Close. Anyway, I came across a photo of a wound in her chest. Some of the edges of the knife wounds are quite jagged, but on closer inspection, one of the marks caught my eye, because the photographs are enlarged. The mark was the same colour as coagulated arterial blood, that’s why I missed it. But I got my assistant to take a look too and it’s not just my eyes and age. I had another look at her: her body is still here, until I sign her off.’

‘So, do you know what the mark is?’

‘Yes, it’s a tattoo.’

‘Really? And?’

‘I looked it up and from what I can see it’s likely to be the symbol of a Moon Goddess.’

‘Moon Goddess?’ Kelly sat upright and the tiny hairs on her arms stood up.

‘It’s a round, full circle in the middle flanked either side with a waxing and waning symbol that represent the three phases of the moon.’