As she did so, she called in a patrol car. The man she was about to interview was the man in the photograph next to Daphne, found in the girl’s wallet.

Chapter 35

Before Kelly arrived back at Eden House, news of the body of a dead woman, found on the edge of Thirlmere reservoir near a car park, had made its way to the investigation team. One of the uniforms on site, when called to the spot by a member of the public who’d been preparing to climb Helvellyn, had taped off the area for a search, and noticed wounds to the woman’s neck, arms and legs that looked like animal bites. Any such concern was immediately viewed as suspicious and the crime squad involved.

Kelly parked and spoke to DS Umshaw on her phone, Kate told her the few details they knew about the woman, and that Dr Demi Cramer was waiting for her in the incident room. Kelly didn’t know what to do first: eat, get a coffee, or punch something. Jock Harris had given her very little. He’d confirmed that the photograph was of him and Daphne, but it was a one-off at a barbecue, hosted by the O’Reillys, years ago, when Kirk was a member of the group. He too hadn’t seen the police appeal, because, like most of the others, he didn’t possess a TV. He said he had no idea why the young girl would keep his photograph and found it as odd as they did, though she did seem to fixate on people.

She turned her attention to the new case. Life went on, cases didn’t stop because they were working on another. Regarding the identity of the dead woman at Thirlmere, there were no current missing person reports, and no ID on the body, but an officer at the scene had tentatively suggested that he knew who she might be. He’d named her as the journalist Carry Tomlin.

‘How sure is he?’ Kelly spoke into her phone.

‘He doesn’t need to be sure, guv. We got sent the images taken by the CSI ten minutes ago. It’s her. She’s been taken to the mortuary in Carlisle and her NOK have been informed; they’ll be requested to formally ID the body when the coroner is ready.

‘Ted Wallis?’

‘Yes, guv.’