‘You know that area should never have been disturbed?’ said Fry. ‘Not by the building contractors, anyway. Jamie Ward was digging a completely unnecessary trench when he came across the first body.’

‘The new owner might have been planning on calling in some landscape gardeners later on, or he might have wanted to tackle the garden himself.’

‘This is the Manchester solicitor, Goodwin?’

‘Right.’

‘Is he a keen gardener?’

‘I have no idea, Diane.’

‘I do wonder why he bought that farm,’ said Fry.

‘Didn’t he say he wanted to move out into the country for some peace and quiet? You called it downshifting, didn’t you?’

‘I meant, why that farm? Why Pity Wood? The place is a complete mess. There must be lots of more attractive propositions within commuting distance of Manchester.’

‘Of course. But probably it was a question of price. This property would have been a lot cheaper than most. You just need deep pockets for the modernization work.’

‘What if he had another reason for choosing that particular property? A more pressing reason?’

Cooper thought about it for a moment. ‘You mean he might have known there were two bodies buried on the farm and couldn’t risk anyone else buying it, in case they discovered the graves?’

‘Well?’

‘It’s possible,’ said Cooper. ‘It might explain the hurry.’

‘Was there a hurry?’

‘They didn’t take the time for an equipment sale.’

‘Oh, that. Well, all that stuff is starting to make a bit of sense now. I think I’ll give Mr Goodwin a call and ask him why he chose Pity Wood.’

‘You’ve no evidence for this theory, Diane.’

‘Somebody has to use a bit of initiative.’

Cooper raised an eyebrow. He thought he could see Fry already starting to respond to the imminent arrival of the new superintendent. No doubt she believed she’d do better under a female boss. He didn’t think that DCI Kessen or DI Hitchens had ever shown any bias for or against her, and had never avoided giving Diane responsibility because she was a woman. But perhaps he wasn’t in the right place to notice. From Diane’s point of view, the situation might look completely different. It was possible that she observed lots of little things, small signs of favour or disfavour that no one else saw or would know how to interpret.

‘By the way, was there anything interesting from the postmortem?’ asked Cooper.

‘A vague stab at twelve months since time of death, and an excessive amount of tooth decay.’

‘Was Mrs van Doon in an unhelpful mood?’

Fry sighed. ‘No, not really. She just has an impossible job, like everyone else.’