‘Patterns,’ he said. ‘If he is taking them in spring and keeping them for a few months – does that narrow it down?’

Laura and Michael exchanged a glance that said the inspector had hit on something.

Michael stood in front of the board and began to write something beside several names, underlining as he went.

When he’d finished, he moved aside. There was a collective intake of breath as everybody absorbed the new information.

The detective had pinpointed five names. Beside them, he’d written their age at the time of their disappearance, the county they’d gone missing in and the date they’d vanished.

Una Dolan, 24, Waterford, April 29th, 2011

Eimear Johnson, 20, Kerry, February 26th, 2010

Treasa Lee, 33, Cork, May 2nd, 2009

Mary Ellen Lehane, 25, Cork, April 17th, 2008

Geraldine Lougheed, 30, Tipperary, March 25th, 2007

‘In amongst so many missing persons, it’s not as obvious,’ Laura added. ‘In those two-page spreads the tabloids run about a potential Irish serial killer, they usually lump in a fair few of the women listed here, even names that the Missing Persons Bureau says we can discount. But these five definitely fit a pattern. Young women who went missing in spring months and were concentrated in a specific geographic area.’

‘It seems a bit convenient for us that we’ve got it down to five names already,’ Tom observed. ‘Are there really no other cases of women who disappeared over those months in each year? February to May is a long period.’

Laura nodded.

‘That’s the secondary list I mentioned. There are, of course, but these are the names that jumped out. For example, a woman went missing in March last year, forty-two, three teenage children. The family say her disappearance was out of the blue and not in character. But her file shows she went missing twice previously and had a history of mental health issues. The woman I mentioned earlier – Pauline O’Hara – went missing in February of 2006, but for the reasons I outlined, we haven’t included her. Until we’ve DNA and dental confirmation, we should probably assume that any of the women who are named here could be one of our victims. These five are leading the race.’

‘If he sticks to those months and that region, should that give us comfort then on the Fiona Holland front?’ Bridget Duffy asked. ‘It’s July and she went missing in Meath – that’s a fair distance from the Munster province.’

The inspector had been wondering that himself and he looked to Laura and Michael expectantly. Laura cocked her head at Ray, who stood up with an air of apology, and Tom knew he was about to say something that would put everybody in the room back on edge.