Another body tent was going up, right where Jamie Ward had pointed out the disturbed earth. Fry watched three PCs in high-vis jackets struggling with the fibreglass frame, giving each other conflicting instructions. A few yards away stood a yellow-and-white crime scene tent. It was twice the size, but it seemed to have gone up more easily – perhaps, she thought, because one woman had done it on her own.

‘This one is an older burial, I can tell you that,’ said Mrs van Doon, dusting off her gloves. ‘I bet you didn’t really need me for an opinion, did you? Complete skeletonization is evident. Dr Jamieson will have to watch out for disarticulation when he removes it from the soil. But his team know what they’re doing. This is not my pigeon, Inspector. I need some soft tissue. Preferably a few internal organs.’

‘Yes, I know,’ said Hitchens.

‘Both of your victims were wrapped in heavy-duty plastic sheeting before they were buried,’ said Mrs van Doon. ‘It looks like the same material to me, despite the difference in the date of the burials. They were killed, bundled up in plastic, and buried.’

‘We can’t persuade you towards suicide then, Doctor?’ asked Hitchens.

The pathologist gave him a glacial look, but didn’t bother to reply.

Hitchens sighed. ‘Pity.’

The DI was beginning to look worn down. Fry suspected he was starting to reflect on whether his initial decisions had been the right ones. Maybe there should have been a bigger operation from the start, an assumption that they were dealing with murder.

Hitchens looked up and saw Wayne Abbott passing by with a Quickstep ladder over his shoulder and called him over.

‘We’re going to have to dig the rest of this place up,’ he said. ‘There might be more bodies.’

‘Dig it up? Do you know how long that would take?’

‘I think it will have to be done, Wayne.’

Abbott put his ladder down. ‘Ground-penetrating radar – that’s your answer. It’s not much use in woodland or on sloping ground, but we can try it here.’

‘Is it effective?’

‘All it does is use the electrical properties of the soil to identify disturbances in the ground. It’s a lot better than sticking a probe in. You need proper training to use those probes, really. If there is a body, and you go too deep, you can poke the end right in. It doesn’t please the pathologist, I can tell you. I heard of one probe injury that was identified at the PM as the entrance wound of a bullet.’

Fry looked around the farmyard – all those nooks and crannies, corners and gateways, paddocks and overgrown gardens.

‘Where would we start?’

Abbott consulted his watch, as if the time of day might make a difference, or perhaps he had something more important to do. Christmas presents to buy, the turkey to pick up.