The next enquiry was an animal cruelty case. She flipped the folder closed and looked at the date: 2005. She briefly browsed some of the other files and realised that a lot of them were from the same year. Somebody had decided to dig up cold cases year by year, and today she’d landed 2005. She ploughed on. The animal cruelty incident concerned a travelling community camping illegally at Birkett Mire, near Threlkeld, just east of Keswick. They’d been reported for various offences against dogs, sheep and birds. In the end, the charges were dropped through lack of evidence. No doubt the CPS didn’t want to become embroiled in a case that involved transient suspects who had a habit of disappearing, as well as non-human victims. It was sad, but reality.

She studied the photographs of the animals and screwed up her nose. One showed a trail of birds’ wings, with blood spattered along a track, with the bodies of the animals arranged in a pile, half burned. Another showed a dog with its back legs hacked off. Kelly felt herself becoming indignant and hungry for justice for the animals, but had to remind herself that this was thirteen years ago, and sometimes the police struggled to find justice for people, let alone a few dogs and birds.

She read the statements from the travelling family and noticed a recurring theme: they all stated that the animals had been hunted and trapped to order. A stranger – whose name they didn’t know – had approached them to deliver the said animals, but had vanished after maiming them. It was a tall story and Kelly rolled her eyes. Charges hadn’t been forthcoming and the travellers moved on. From the testimonials, Kelly worked out that the prominent figure in the small travelling community at the time was a man called Harry O’Connor. There was always a staunch hierarchy in such colonies, and there was usually a man at the top.

She stretched and rubbed her neck.