‘I think one of the worst things was the crowd. All these people just stood there watching as the bodies fell and broke on the rocks. Three of them, one after another.’

Tailby glanced at the triple tape decks as the Ranger’s voice faded, wondering whether they would pick up the words that had become almost a whisper. But Fox rallied again as he looked at the detectives.

‘There was counselling by then, of course. But it depends what kind of person you are, how you deal with that sort of thing. Sometimes, you can’t deal with it at all.’

Tailby leaned forward. ‘All right. I understand. And the woman you were convicted of attacking, Owen? Was that something else you just couldn’t deal with?’

Owen gazed at Tailby directly for the first time in the past ten minutes.

‘That was different,’ he said. ‘That was about sex.’

Back in Cargreave, the detective from DI Armstrong’s team had accessed the temporary internet files downloaded on to Owen’s PC to track the sites that he had visited. It had never occurred to Owen to delete any of the files. So it didn’t take the detective long to find the child porn.

29

Mark Roper wasn’t under arrest. But he had heard that Owen was, and the thought was making him nervous. He assumed that Ben Cooper had acted on what he had told him about the dog-fighting. But gradually he was realizing that the questions were about something else. And when he got nervous, he got angry. He had never learned to keep a cool head, like Owen.

‘It’s the women who are the worst,’ said Mark.

‘Who told you that?’ asked DI Hitchens.

‘Owen did.’

Mark glanced at the tapes, as if feeling guilty at mentioning Owen’s name.

‘They’re so absorbed in themselves that they don’t notice what they’re doing. They don’t notice what’s going on around them,’ he said.

‘It upsets you when people litter the countryside, doesn’t it, Mark?’

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘They’re destroying the environment. They don’t understand the damage they’re doing with their rubbish. Their drinks cans and plastic bags kill animals and birds and all sorts of small creatures. I’ve seen them. I know.’

‘And you think it’s part of your job to clean up after people?’

‘It’s part of the job of a Ranger to care for the environment.’

‘Perhaps you sometimes take it too far, though, Mark?’

Mark looked sulky. ‘Someone has to care.’

‘Did you see Jenny Weston leave any rubbish?’

‘I didn’t see her at all. I mean, I didn’t see her until she was dead.’

‘No, of course. What about anybody else? Did you see anybody else that day on Ringham Moor?’

Mark shook his head.

‘Say it aloud for the tape, please,’ said Hitchens.

‘No, I didn’t see anybody on the moor. There was nobody.’