‘I’m afraid we don’t have the jacket, because all material items were destroyed by the fire,’ Strachan said, taking the picture back and putting it away. ‘I just wanted to see if you recognized it, because we didn’t get a visual of this person’s face, but he was tracked getting back into the car after purchasing a pack of cigarettes, which he paid for using your husband’s debit card.’

‘Doesn’t that prove that it was Evan, then?’ Marie asked.

‘Not exactly,’ said Strachan. ‘He used the contactless function rather than entering a pin, so it’s possible the card could have been stolen along with the jacket and the car. As I explained earlier, this isn’t the kind of news we’d want to deliver to the wrong family, so we do everything in our power to ascertain the victim’s identity before we approach their loved ones.’

Marie nodded her understanding. Then, chewing on her lip for a second, dreading the answer, she said, ‘Was – was anyone with him at the service station? A woman, I mean?’

‘As far as we can tell, he was alone,’ said Strachan. Then: ‘Can I ask if you have children? We managed to recover a sample of DNA from the scene, but your husband isn’t on our database, so we’ll need to check it against a close relative in order to see if it’s a match.’

‘We haven’t got kids,’ Marie said quietly. ‘We tried, but . . .’ She tailed off and shrugged. ‘That’s why I got the dog.’

‘It’s OK.’ Strachan gave her an understanding smile. ‘Now we know his father’s alive, we’ll see if he can provide us with a sample instead. Providing he’s your husband’s biological father?’

‘Oh, Frank’s definitely his dad,’ Marie said with certainty. ‘Evan’s the image of him, and Maureen wasn’t the kind to cheat.’ Unlike that bitch Frank’s with now, she thought but didn’t add.

‘One last thing,’ Strachan said. ‘Did your husband own or have access to any guns that you know of?’

‘No.’ Marie shook her head. ‘Frank used to own a shotgun when he was still farming, but I think he got rid of it when he had his heart attack. Why do you ask?’

‘We recovered a gun at the scene, along with the corpse,’ said Ogden.

Flashing him a disapproving look when Marie visibly blanched at the word corpse, Strachan said, ‘There was significant damage to the skull and facial bones which indicate he’d been shot at close range.’

‘Oh, my God!’ Marie gasped. ‘You think Evan shot himself? Is that why you kept asking if he was depressed? No way . . .’ She shook her head. ‘Evan would never have done that. One of his mates hanged himself a few years ago, and he went mad; said it was the most selfish thing anyone could ever do.’