‘Nothing but a bunch of litter. It was a dry day so there are no prints on the ground: it’s gravel. We’ve got appeals up and down the A591 for witnesses but we’ve had no responses that match the time frame yet.’

‘Thanks.’ Emma hung up. She wheeled her chair towards Rob, who looked up from his desk.

‘Social call?’ he asked.

‘The search around Thirlmere is taking forever because there are about three pods available to search. I’ve found this.’ She showed him the address for the deceased Harry O’Connor.

‘Might be worth a visit?’

‘But he’s dead,’ Rob said.

‘Kirk Junker might be dead, too. Isn’t it just a little too convenient? It’s the closest property to where Carry was last seen and the deceased owner was called Harry O’Connor?’

‘The boss is driving.’

‘She’s got speaker phone.’

‘Ask Kate.’

DS Kate Umshaw was DI Porter’s deputy and so she could make decisions in her absence. Emma scooted her chair back to her desk and left it there. Kate was in DI Porter’s office on the phone. Emma waited. It sounded as though she was discussing lab results. She heard DS Umshaw hang up and went across the hall.

‘They got usable DNA from the pile of clothes found in the field near Castlerigg: no matches. What’s up?’

Emma shared what she’d found.

‘The boss would get into a car and head over there. Take somebody else, though. Don’t go on your own.’

‘Can’t I just get a squad car there?’

‘I don’t think that’s justifiable unless one is in the area. You need the boss to agree to that.’

Emma went back to her desk and looked at the pile of jobs she had to plough through. She toyed with what to do. Driving to Thirlmere could take forty minutes or more. She decided to wait and run it past her boss. The farmhouse was going nowhere.

Chapter 49

From the comfort of her car, Kelly got a squad car to have a poke around Threlkeld Quarry, to see if everything was in order. By in order, she expected an abandoned quarry to be empty of people, especially ones up to no good. There shouldn’t be any sign of work or life. If there was, she wanted to know about it.

It didn’t take long for the uniforms to report back that the quarry was as it should be: deserted, decrepit and unloved. There was no sign of foul play, apart from some old graffiti, smashed beer bottles and discarded cigarette butts.