‘All you’re asking for is a full forensics team,’ he snapped. ‘To examine a pile of dead dogs. Seriously, Lucy?’

‘We won’t need the whole show. Can’t they just spare us a couple of CSIs? And it’s not just for these dogs, Stan. It’s not even for the missing homeless, if that’s also a concern … those ragged non-persons who most folk don’t even notice, never mind care about!’

‘Easy, Lucy,’ he cautioned.

‘Ultimately, it’s for Harry Hopkins and Lorna Cunningham.’

She paused, breathless.

Beardmore sighed long and hard. ‘A couple of CSIs …?’

Finally, it sounded as if he was considering it, though he clearly wasn’t happy. She understood why. He’d signed off on a reasonably large operation of hers quite recently, and though they’d got results, it had mainly concerned dog-fighting. Someone would ask questions about that at some point. Spend a few quid in the twenty-first-century police, and you had to give a good explanation why.

‘Maybe if Serious can pick up the tab …?’ he said.

‘But they’re not even officially attached to the case yet,’ Lucy replied. ‘And you know how difficult Priya can be.’

‘Yes, I do,’ he said. ‘Which is why this’ll be one phone-call I’m not looking forward to.’

‘Perhaps just tell her what this is. That whoever killed these animals might now be killing people. But also, if it’s like some kind of graduation process, where they start with animals but then move on up to a higher challenge … well, maybe they won’t have been too careful at the early stage. So we could have an absolute treasure trove of evidence here. But not unless we get this crime scene cordoned off and secured, and we get Scientific Support at the first opportunity.’

‘I’ll see what I can do,’ he said, after another long sigh. ‘As I say, I’ll make a phone-call. In the meantime, you do what you can.’ He cut the call.

Lucy hurried across the bottom of the depression, heading back up the slope, passing Peabody in the process. ‘Come on,’ she said.

He looked massively relieved. ‘Where we going?’

‘Back to the car park.’ She descended the other side of the rise to the footpath. ‘I’ve got some incident tape in my boot. You can bring it back here and close the scene off.’

‘The scene?’

‘Gimme a break, Malcolm. I’m sure you overheard most of that conversation.’

‘You mean we’ve got to go and get stuff from your car, and then I’ve got to come all the way back here on my own?’

‘Not only that –’ they passed through the defile between the mountains of boxes ‘– you’ve then got to stand guard.’

‘So where are you going?’