‘Much too perfect to be true.’

‘Absolutely. I think we can all agree on that.’

‘Perfect citizens vote, don’t they? Is she on the electoral register?’

‘No. And she’s not in the phone directory either,’ said Hitchens. ‘All we’ve got is her passport, plus her bank statements and utility bills. The other strange thing is that there are no obvious personal contacts. There is an odd entry on a blank page in her address book, though. It’s just three digits: 359.’

‘A dialling code, perhaps,’ offered Kessen.

‘Well, we checked it out. The Highbury area of London comes closest – 0207 359.’

‘Inner London?’

‘Yes, London N1.’

‘What about the 0359 code? Where’s that?’

‘Nowhere. It’s a BT code all right, but it’s allocated for future network expansion.’

‘Could it be a country code?’ said Cooper. ‘Is there a directory somewhere?’

‘On the shelf.’

He picked up the directory and leafed through the pages towards the back. ‘They don’t list international codes by number, but by country, in alphabetical order. Hold on . . . well, that didn’t take long. It says here 359 is the code for Bulgaria.’

‘Oh, great. There’s a job for someone to follow up. Any volunteers?’

There was a ripple of laughter round the room as the atmosphere eased and officers recognized the end of the briefing approaching.

‘I know it’s going to be a pain in the neck for Scientific Support, but we should get someone to go over the whole house for fingerprints,’ said Kessen. ‘The fact that the victim didn’t spend too much time dusting should work in our favour.’

‘Meanwhile, the IT team are giving the laptop a going-over,’ said Hitchens. ‘If Rose Shepherd had information stored somewhere, it might be online. There are plenty of sites offering free web storage space.’

‘Protected by a password, of course. So we just have to hope we strike lucky.’

‘Basically, the victim’s story seems to be this: she kept herself hidden away in Bain House for the best part of a year, then for some reason decided to go for an afternoon out in Matlock Bath. That same night she was murdered by person or persons unknown.’

‘It’s as if she was hiding from someone. Do you think she was frightened of being recognized if she went out?’

‘Yes, she thought she was in danger. And it looks as though she exposed herself to that danger on Saturday. But we don’t know why. We’re working on the theory that the victim was seen in Matlock Bath by someone who followed her home to find out where she lived. Somehow, they also obtained her ex-directory phone number. Then they wasted no time in eliminating her.’

‘She must really have upset someone in the past.’