‘I don’t know who Tank Girl is,’ said Tailby, ‘but I dare say I can imagine it.’

Hitchens smiled. ‘It was the combat trousers and the hairstyle, I suppose. And a certain aggressiveness of manner, too. Sounds like our girl, all right. In any case, she was staying at Jenny Weston’s house, at least up to six weeks before Jenny was killed. Forensics found plenty of traces in the house that didn’t belong to Weston.’

‘There are other possibilities. What about Warren Leach, sir?’ asked Cooper.

‘He was certainly in the area,’ said Hitchens. ‘He has to be eliminated. And he has a connection to Maggie Crew – his wife was the finder on that one.’

‘Mmm. I don’t like coincidences,’ said Tailby. ‘And is there some significance in the way that the victim’s body was arranged? Anybody had any ideas on that?’

No one answered. Cooper wondered whether they had all shared the same thought when they saw the position of Jenny Weston’s body. He had put his own reaction down to another burst of imagination, the idea that Jenny had been made to dance at the moment of her death. It was certainly too strange a thought to be contributed to the morning briefing.

‘And how do we find out more about Leach?’ said Tailby, almost to himself.

Then suddenly there were voices chiming in from all round the room.

‘Talk to his neighbours?’ suggested someone.

‘He hasn’t got any neighbours,’ said another officer.

‘Friends, then.’

‘Like who?’

‘There’s Keith Teasdale. The rat man.’

‘Is he a friend?’

‘The nearest thing he’s got, probably.’

Tailby raised a hand, half-heartedly.

‘OK, we’ll talk to Teasdale again. Is there anything else?’

Cooper took a breath. ‘Yes,’ he said.

There was something about the way he said it that quietened the laughter.

‘Cooper?’

‘I checked the firearms register for Warren Leach.’

‘Firearms?’ said Tailby. Heads were raised, and ears pricked up. ‘Leach has a shotgun, I suppose? Most farmers have them.’

‘Yes, there’s a shotgun. But when I was there the other day with Owen Fox, Leach also had a captive bolt pistol.’

‘A what?’

‘A humane killer. It’s used for putting animals down. It fires a steel bolt directly into the brain.’

‘Do you need an FAC for that, Cooper?’

‘Well, not if you’re a licensed slaughterman. But Warren Leach has no licence. Farmers can get them, if they can show that they need one. But there’s no record of Leach ever even applying for one.’

‘So he’s in illegal possession,’ said Tailby. ‘OK, let’s interview him again. Teasdale first, then Leach. Let’s do it.’

Somebody patted Cooper on the shoulder. And Tailby hurried to close the meeting before anybody asked any more questions.