He looked at her. Part pity and part derision. ‘Nothing.’ He was a Scouser and it sounded as though he was spitting the word. ‘No clothing dating back to the time in question. Nothing that could have belonged to your man. No sign that anything’s been buried, or that the concrete’s been disturbed anywhere in the yard.’

‘Except in here.’ Coffee, sugar and a flash of the new idea made her almost light-headed. No hangover now. ‘There was a wooden temporary office here before the shed. Smart; linked to mains services. It was burned down. There was a suspicion that it was an insurance scam. But maybe Kerr wanted to hide a body, hide the evidence of a murder. A fire would give him an excuse to replace the floor. The shed appeared on the same site soon after. Nobody would have noticed, would they? Customers coming into the yard would have thought any work was connected to the fire damage.’

‘You want us to dig up the floor in here?’ He looked at her as if she was crazy.

‘Aye, I do.’ She smiled, knowing that she seemed manic, unhinged. ‘Humour a mad old woman, eh? All those fit men out there, it won’t take more than a few minutes.’

She walked away from him across the yard, her coat flapping behind her. As she emerged from the screen onto the pavement there was the click of a camera. The press were there already then. More predators. She walked up the street to her vehicle and drove back to Kimmerston. Partly because she couldn’t stand the stress of watching them: the men with their picks and shovels and wheelbarrows of debris, calling her all sorts under their breath. The waiting would send her blood pressure sky-high. But there was another reason too. She didn’t need to hang around because she knew she was right. She was sure of it. Because she felt it in her bones, just as she felt Margaret’s guilt – and because nothing else made sense. It would be better for her to be in the office when the news came through, ready to brief the rest of the team.

The call came sooner than she’d expected it. She’d made tea, wandered over to Holly’s desk to see how she was getting on and back into her office. She left the door open. Some days it felt like a cell and she needed to let in some air. So the team saw her raise her fist, a sign of triumph and vindication. They saw her beam. And when she strode out to greet them, they had all turned to face her.