Cradling a cup of coffee, looking at the two detectives opposite him across the small table, Taylor asked in a warm, slightly gravelly voice, ‘So what are your objectives? I have a briefing with my team at 4.30 p.m. and will inform them.’

Grace, out of courtesy, glanced at Branson, who nodded for him to go ahead.

‘OK, Mark, this is what we’ve got. A husband, Niall Paternoster, aged thirty-five, we think has killed his wife, Eden, aged thirty-one.’ Grace filled him in on all the details of his suspicions, before continuing. ‘We know that, in his past, Niall Paternoster worked as a butcher’s apprentice. This may, as we suspect, have enabled him with sufficient knowledge to have dissected his wife’s body. We believe in the early hours of last Friday he may have driven to Ashdown Forest and deposited some or all of her body parts, except for her head, in a grave.’

Taylor made some notes.

Grace continued. ‘He currently works as a journeyman taxi driver, mostly on lates. We suspect that he may subsequently have disposed of his wife’s head off the end of the east mole of Shoreham Harbour. At this stage, other than a single bone that may be human, but more likely not, found at the deposition site, we have no hard evidence against Paternoster. Catching him returning to the deposition site would be very helpful, for starters.’

Taylor tapped some further notes into the tablet in front of him.

‘In terms of a motive, we have reason to suppose that Niall Paternoster may be having an affair,’ Branson added. ‘Last Sunday afternoon, some while after he claimed that his wife went into Tesco Holmbush and vanished, he had a meet-up with a person unknown at this point, at Devil’s Dyke. All we have is an unregistered – presumably burner – phone, which has been traced to one of a number of houses in Barrowfield Drive, Hove. We’re checking who lives there.’

‘Posh address,’ Taylor said. ‘I’d love to live in that area if I could ever afford it. So you don’t know whether the owner of the phone is male or female?’

Grace and Branson both shook their heads.

‘But there were four kisses,’ Branson added.

Taylor pursed his lips. ‘So it’s likely to be a shag.’

Grace nodded affirmation. ‘Intel from his phone and from the car’s satnav and onboard computer show he’s had regular meet-ups at this same location over the past six months – as does the triangulation plot from the burner. I’m hoping we get lucky with your surveillance and he goes there again.’

Taylor nodded. ‘What actual evidence do you currently have that Niall Paternoster has murdered his wife, Eden, sir?’

‘At this stage, we have no actual body to prove murder,’ Grace replied. ‘Our evidence is entirely circumstantial. I would like your team to put twenty-four-seven surveillance on him. I’d particularly like to see if he goes back to the deposition site, for any reason – perhaps to check if it has been disturbed. And we’d like to see if he has any further liaisons with his contact – and to monitor, if possible, any conversations between them. His financial situation may be significant – we are led to believe that he has much to gain from his wife’s death. So the principal objective of this surveillance is to monitor his movements and secure evidence.’