It seemed a young woman had seen a person hanging around outside the back of Ashton’s Bookshop on the night of Dennis Wade’s murder. The woman claimed that, at first, she thought the person might be homeless, but when she spotted the figure peering in through a window she realised they were watching the premises. At the time, she said, she hadn’t given it much thought as a blizzard was blowing and she and her friends were late for a party at one of the halls of residence. When the witness had been asked what time this took place she said she thought it was around eight o’clock in the evening. She had described the figure as tall and wearing a dark hooded coat or jacket. The description was strikingly similar to the image the police had found on CCTV. Elly scribbled down the contact details of the witness and returned to trawling through the rest of the recorded calls.

Unlike the city centre of Cambridge, Ickleton had practically no CCTV so even if the killer had been scoping out New Barn there would be no evidence.

When Elly knocked on Barrett’s door to give him an update a thought occurred to her.

‘Sir?’ She let herself in, conscious that he hadn’t given any verbal permission.

‘Yes?’ Barrett was hunched over his computer.

‘We have an eye-witness report claiming they saw someone acting suspiciously outside Ashton’s Bookshop on the night of Mr Wade’s murder. She hadn’t brought over the transcript of the recorded conversation for her superior to look at. ‘I’ve made a note of the witness’s telephone number and home address.’

‘Good.’ He slid the paperwork back to her and continued tapping on his keyboard expecting her to leave. But when she didn’t, he finally looked up. ‘What is it?’

‘I’ve been thinking.’ Elly bit her lip for a moment. ‘It might be a good idea to look back over CCTV footage further back than the night of the murder. If, as we believe, the killer has been following his victims for some time, in order to familiarise themselves with their routines, then it is possible that there may be more footage of our suspect. Perhaps even footage that might give us a better look at our perpetrator.’ Elly held her breath waiting to hear what her boss thought about her suggestion.

‘Excellent idea. Get onto the CCTV control room and ask them to go through footage over the last three months.’

‘Yes, sir!’ Elly was extremely pleased that her idea had been welcomed.

‘If they need more manpower to trawl through the footage, then you can go over there, and take Singh with you.’

Suddenly Elly wasn’t so thrilled.

‘Good work, Hale.’ Barrett stopped typing for a moment. ‘Anything useful on the Matlock murder?’