He looked around for Fry. ‘I wonder if Lowther might have had experience of police interviews before,’ he said.

But Fry shook her head. ‘Not according to the PNC. He doesn’t have any previous.’

‘No previous convictions, yes. But he might have been questioned and not charged. Should I follow it up?’

‘Yes. And don’t forget Lowther was on West Yorkshire’s patch for three years.’

‘OK. Have you done a PNC check on Brian Mullen, by the way?’

‘He has no record, not even any driving offences. There’s no local intelligence on him either, so he has no known criminal associates.’

‘No one he could call on for a competent arson job, then?’

‘I don’t think he needed to. This was a personal affair.’

‘Right.’

Fry watched Cooper put on his jacket and check his mobile phone, ready to leave.

‘Are you in Matlock Bath later this afternoon, Ben?’

‘Yes. I’ve got to go back to the shopping village.’

‘Do me a favour – keep an eye out for somewhere you might buy a wooden dinosaur.’

Cooper stopped. ‘What? Oh, the photo that you showed Lowther.’

‘I want to find out where this came from. It must be fairly unusual. I’ve never seen anything like it myself, and Brian Mullen tells me he’s never seen it before either. If it was a gift for one of the Mullen children, it might have been from a recent visitor to the house.’

Cooper studied the wooden toy closely. ‘Hang on – I think I did see something like this in Matlock Bath on Tuesday. Not exactly the same, perhaps – but similar.’ He shook his head. ‘I’m sorry, Diane, I should have taken more notice.’

‘That’s OK, Ben. But check it out for me, will you?’

Cooper handed the photos back. ‘The Rose Shepherd enquiry isn’t getting anywhere, is it? It’s too unfocused.’

‘I agree. What we need is someone to point us in the right direction.’

‘Oh, I nearly forgot – there was a message from Sergeant Kotsev,’ said Cooper.

‘Oh? What does he say?’

‘He says his flight from Sofia will land at Manchester Airport at twenty minutes to five.’

‘What? He’s coming here? For God’s sake, why weren’t we told about this?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe there was another message that we missed.’

‘And maybe not,’ said Fry bitterly. ‘Twenty to five? Does he mean today?’

‘I suppose so.’

‘Damn it, he must have been phoning me from the check-in desk. He must have been practically on board the plane already.’

‘Do you want to hear the rest of the message?’

‘No, but you’d better give it me anyway.’

‘Well, he sends his respects to Sergeant Fry. And he wonders if you’d be free to pick him up from the airport.’

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Two