‘So, we’ve a compassionate murderer,’ the inspector said, his voice hard. ‘Thanks, Ray. Okay, moving on to forensics. Ah, Emmet, thanks for coming in.’

‘You’ve not a lot to thank me for, I’m afraid,’ Emmet barked in his usual affable way as he planted his wide bottom on a straining chair. ‘Aside from Mark’s little moment of genius down at the site with those flowers, we’ve nothing for you. The sheets the victims were wrapped in were clean and there were no foreign fibres on the bodies. He might have given them different things to wear while he held them captive, but the fabrics in the graves correspond to the colours and designs matching the items each woman was wearing when she disappeared.’

Emmet sighed as he removed his glasses to clean the lenses.

‘The only lead we have for you, Tom, is something that, from what I hear, is fairly obvious. Those flowers he planted would have been likely to come from the south-west of the country and Cork or Kerry would be a good bet. So, perhaps he’s from there? And, as Mark said, he knows his plants. You’ve discussed flexibility – maybe he’s a sales rep for a gardening company?’

‘The Hollands own a landscaping business,’ Ray said. ‘Does he work for them?’

‘Is it one of the Hollands?’ Laura followed up, her eyebrow raised.

Tom nodded, thoughtfully. They’d plenty of avenues to pursue but little actual evidence.

‘Thanks, Emmet. Ian, bring us up to speed on what the rest of the team have been up to.’

Ian loosened his tie and ran a handkerchief over his bald head to wipe away the visible sheen of sweat.

‘No problem. Okay, first off, Glendalough has been reopened to the public. The burial site remains cordoned off. For now, anyway. The media are mad to get inside the “valley of horror”, as they’ve named it. I think it will attract a different sort of pilgrim from here on.

‘We’re making our way through the interviews with the staff. Strangely enough, so far we don’t have a single sighting over the course of the six years of somebody carrying a body through the place. People do camp in Glendalough and the car parks tend to have vehicles in them, even at night. Nobody would have considered it out of the ordinary to see a car or van there out of hours.’

Ian sipped some water before continuing.