Patrick nodded. ‘But I think we can surmise that she was left there during the night between the second and third. There are lots of joggers and dog-walkers around in the early morning, passing the encampment, so it’s most likely that she was dumped under the cover of darkness. Which means she was killed very shortly after she was taken from her house.’

He had figured this out already. Isabel had gone missing at 3.45 P.M. on the 2nd. If her body was found the next morning, unless Wesley was lying or mistaken about the day, it meant that whoever had taken her had murdered her within hours.

‘Is there any evidence that suggests that Wesley has given us false information about when he found her?’

Hamlet frowned. ‘No. Like I said, it’s very difficult for me to give an exact time of death but I would say that, from the condition of the body, a week seems correct.’

Patrick made a note in his pad and waited for Hamlet to continue. In his pad, he already had details of what she had eaten for her last meal: macaroni cheese with peas, and melon for dessert. He asked Hamlet if there were any other foods in her stomach and was told that there weren’t.

He waited for Hamlet to reveal the piece of information he most needed to know, but dreaded. He braced himself.

‘There are no signs of sexual activity whatsoever,’ Hamlet said.

Patrick looked up, surprised. ‘Really?’

The pathologist said, ‘Yes. No sexual penetration, no semen on the body or in the mouth, no signs that her genitals had been touched at all.’

At the same time that Patrick felt relief, he experienced more confusion. The fact that the first two missing children were different sexes had always made the team wonder if paedophiles were involved. Most paedophiles preferred one or the other, boys or girls, but that had shifted their thoughts onto a gang – a paedophile ring, possibly traffickers of children. But if there was no sexual assault, why was that? Had something happened that had panicked the abductor?

Why go to all the trouble and risk of abducting a child from her home and murdering her almost immediately if sexual assault was not the motive? Or maybe, Patrick realized, it was the motive but the abductor had not, for whatever reason, had the chance to carry out their vile aims.

‘It will be of some comfort to the parents,’ Hamlet said. ‘A crumb. There’s one more thing.’

He brought out a pile of clothes, which Patrick recognized as the ones Isabel had been wearing: a pair of jeans, a lilac T-shirt and a white cardigan, stained with filth. The clothes had been left beside the body.

‘Smell them,’ Hamlet instructed.

Patrick did as he was asked. They smelled smoky, like she had been close to a bonfire.

‘What is it?’ he asked. ‘Wood smoke?’