A couple of hands went up at the back of the room and Clare acknowledged this. ‘Okay,’ she continued. ‘I want every spare officer going over the grounds at Lamond Lodge again this morning. You’re looking for anything that might have been dropped, including the gun cartridge. Chris and I will be out and about but we’ll keep in touch.’

She smiled, indicating the briefing was at an end, and they began to drift off, clicking laptops to bring them to life. Sara and Mandy went to load up the CCTV footage.

‘I need a coffee,’ Clare said to Chris.

‘Me too.’

‘That’s kind of you. Bring them into my office and I’ll see if the PM report’s up yet.’

‘I don’t recall offering,’ he muttered trailing off to the kitchen.

By the time he returned with two coffees Clare was reading the ballistics report. ‘They’ve identified the bullet,’ she said.

Chris set down the coffees and produced a pack of Wagon Wheels but Clare barely glanced at them. ‘It’s a 7.62mm Russian.’

Chris fished a Wagon Wheel out of the packet and pulled a chair over to peer at the monitor. ‘What’s that when it’s at home?’

‘The proper name is a 7.62×54mmR. From a hunting rifle, apparently.’

‘Can they tell which one?’

Clare peered at the screen. ‘Caroline says it could be a couple of different models but, going on past arms seizures, it’s likely a Dragunov.’

‘Which is?’

‘Semi-automatic sniper rifle. Pretty serious bit of kit.’

Chris gave a low whistle. ‘This smacks of a professional hitman. Where would he get a gun like that?’

‘Or she.’

‘Yeah, of course. But, where?’

‘It’s a Russian gun. Probably through Eastern Europe. That’s where most illegal arms come from.’

Chris bit into his Wagon Wheel and slurped his coffee. ‘Anything else?’

Clare scanned the screen, reading paragraphs of text. ‘Looks like they’ve confirmed where it was fired from.’

‘They’re pretty cool, these lasers.’

‘They are. Caroline reckons top storey, south-east aspect.’

‘Any sign of the cartridge?’

Clare scrolled through the report again. ‘That’s a good point, Chris. It doesn’t say.’

‘If they did recover it, there might be a partial print, or DNA, even.’

‘Yeah, there might just. I’ll go back to her on that.’

‘Have they let SOCO know?’

Clare nodded. ‘I’ll give Raymond a call. See if he’s got anything.’ She moved to the contacts on her phone and called up Raymond Curtice, the SOCO officer. While she waited for him to answer she noticed the Wagon Wheels. ‘How’d you get these past Sara?’

‘Keep ’em in my locker.’

‘She’ll find out, you know. Oh, Raymond. Hi. Just wondering if you’ve found any gunshot residue.’

‘Yep. Got it. Top storey, as Caroline said. Furthest left window as you look at the house.’

‘And?’