When she returned, he was prowling round the perimeter, studying the exposed stonework and the original beams as if he knew what he was looking at. He’d lost weight since she’d seen him last. His suit hung loose on his big frame, his shirt billowing out above his belt. The lines round his eyes were more deeply etched, his cheeks hollow. ‘Ta,’ he said, taking the tea. ‘You’ve pretty much rubbed out all your brother and his missus did here.’

‘Apart from the far end. Where Michael worked. It’s a kind of guest suite. Or granny flat or whatever. It’s self-contained.’

‘And Vance was never in there.’

Carol’s mouth tightened. She said nothing.

Franklin looked as if he was about to say something then stopped himself. He changed tack, crossing to the sawhorse. ‘You’ll make summat of it, I expect.’

Carol leaned against the wall, one hand on the dog’s head. ‘Why are you here? Is it because of the body over the hill?’

She caught a momentary flash of surprise in his eyes. ‘Still a copper at heart, Carol. How did you find out about that? You don’t talk to anybody round here except George Nicholas, and he’s not on the bush telegraph.’

She toyed with the notion of refusing to tell him. She didn’t owe him anything. ‘I was walking the dog up on the shoulder of the hill. I know what a crime scene looks like, even at that distance.’

He sighed in satisfaction, and not at the tea. ‘Mr Nicholas picked the right day to give you the dog.’

‘Depends on how you look at it. I’ve got no interest in dead bodies or crime scenes any more.’

‘How do you know it was a body?’

‘Too much activity for anything less. A body or a serious sexual assault, I thought. But there’s other places on the way up there if you’re after a bit of lay-by sex. So I assumed a body.’

Franklin drummed the fingers of his left hand on the saw-horse. ‘Here’s the funny thing,’ he said. ‘Well, two funny things. First is, she’s from Bradfield. A misper, but according to DCI Fielding, she’s a match for another body they caught earlier in the week. Looks like the same killer, so I’ve graciously handed it over to her.’

‘Very generous of you. I don’t remember you being so open-handed with that murdered teenager a while back. I had to fight you tooth and nail for that one. Or maybe you prefer brunettes. Blokes always seemed to be suckers for Alex Fielding’s charms, as I recall.’

He shrugged. ‘Never noticed she had any. I was too busy getting into Detective Sergeant McIntyre’s ribs.’