Tennison craned forward and gently lifted the matted hair away from the girl’s face. Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch as Tennison peered at the pitiful face of the victim. She crouched down, then knelt on the plastic sheeting for an even closer look. The stench of decomposed flesh made her nostrils burn, but she forced herself to study what she could see of the girl’s profile, trying to match it with the photographs of Della Mornay.

Eventually she let the hair fall back into place and accepted help to rise to her feet. She slithered as she tried to climb the bank and Eastel gave her a hand.

“I can’t be a hundred per cent sure, but I think you’re right. It looks like Della Mornay.”

The body was eased onto the plastic sheeting and lifted onto a stretcher, face downwards. The rain still pelted down as four men carried the stretcher up the bank and passed directly in front of Tennison. She stepped back to let them by, then asked them to wait a moment; she could see the rope that bound the corpse’s hands. She turned to Otley.

“Is it the same rope?”

“I don’t know, ma’am, but I think if she is our girl we should have her sent to our patch, get Felix Norman on it.”

Tennison nodded. Despite the mud she could see marks on the victim’s arms, deep weals that looked similar to those on Karen Howard.

“Yes, get Felix. I’ll go back to the station and wait for him to contact me, but I want him out here tonight.”

Otley nodded agreement. He watched as they carried the body away. “You should never have released Marlow. Any money on it, that bastard did this one as well.”

She bristled. “I had no option but to release him. If he’s guilty, I’ll get him back.”

“There’s no if, you know it, we all know it. Why d’you think my guv’nor was so desperate to book him? He knew . . .”

“Like I said, Sergeant, when I’ve got the evidence we’ll make an arrest, and this time we’ll go by the book. This time there’ll be no cock-ups!”

“Yeah, you do that, love! Go by the book, and if he kills again you can say, “I hadda stick to the rules!” That bastard is guilty, and my guv’nor knew it!”

“If he knew so much why did he foul up the way he did? Don’t give me that bullshit! Right now it’s the last thing I need. And you tell me, if a male officer of my rank had taken over this team, would you call him ‘love’?”

“I’m sorry, ma’am, slip of the tongue. But if you blacken my guv’nor’s name, you start raking up the dirt on him, then . . .”

“Then what?”