Palmer had been tasked with calling the taxi company and trying to identify which driver had picked the victim and the suspect up and what their destination had been. After a few calls backwards and forwards between the friendly woman at the taxi depot, a number of drivers and the police, they finally established that a driver called Mohammed Okeke took the job. Mohammed, who had a limited grasp of the English language, finally agreed to come into the station to give a statement. As soon as the interview time was set, Palmer busied himself arranging for a police sketch artist to be there. It was a long shot, given that it was nearly a week since the driver had picked the pair up and had likely encountered plenty of other strangers in between, but it was a new lead and the team felt spurred on.

Once they had established that Okeke was originally from Nigeria, and had only been in Britain for the last twelve months, it was decided, to save time, that they would bring a translator in to help with the interview. Barrett knew that the finer details relating to the description of the suspect might otherwise get lost with the language barrier. But, as was the case with a lot of police procedures, it was not that easy finding a translator and a sketch artist who could both come to Cambridge and sit in on an interview at the same time.

Barrett, who knew exactly how to play the system, quickly got on to his boss and explained the situation. It was in everyone’s interest to solve the case as swiftly as possible, especially given the swarm of journalists who had descended on the snow-covered city and who were stirring up fear among local residents. Even shopkeepers had reported the quietest December on their books in years. People were scared.

The Chief Superintendent had immediately got onto his contacts at the Met in London and asked them to help. Within two hours Barrett received a call telling him that a sketch artist and translator would be arriving in Cambridge at six o’clock that evening, just in time to sit in on the interview with Mohammed Okeke. At last, Barrett and Palmer felt like they might be getting somewhere.

The task of sending the footage of Wendy and the suspect and the footage of the character leaving the area after Dennis Wade’s murder to a computer forensics analyst had fallen to Elly Hale. The police needed to know whether forensics could confirm if the hooded character in both recordings was, in fact, the same person. It appeared to the inspector that it was a given. The coat worn in both pieces of film was identical but, in order to build a case, they needed confirmation from paid specialists. Barrett and Palmer’s guesswork would not stand up in court.