Priest shrugged. ‘She said something about a tip-off, but Simeon’s address was in the trial bundle. Maybe she managed to get a copy from somewhere. Hagworth leaves his papers lying around all over the place.’

Even as he said it, Priest wasn’t convinced, but Rowlinson seemed satisfied and was carrying on. ‘Anyway, she never checked the boot, save when she collected her kit bag after an hour at the gym last night at around eight. So whoever dumped the body in the boot, assuming it wasn’t her, had several opportunities between eight last night and seven this morning.’

‘You don’t think she’s got anything more to do with this other than owning a convenient place to dump a body?’

‘She’s a person of interest.’ Rowlinson nodded his head – the smile had waned a little. ‘But she seems genuine. Questions are: who killed Mr Ali? Why? And why dump the body in Fox’s car?’

‘Cameras?’ Priest asked, hopeful.

‘Nah. CCTV blackspot. Typical.’

‘Sarah’s going to kill me. She’s down as the landlord of the flat where Simeon was staying.’

Rowlinson sighed. ‘I’m going to need to talk to her.’

‘I know. Go easy on her.’

‘You have my word. And she’s not a priority. A few days’ time, I’ll get round to it. Besides, the flat’s not a crime scene as far as I can tell and I can’t get Forensics there until tomorrow. So for Christ’s sake don’t go poking around there.’

Priest nodded, appreciative. ‘How was Simeon killed?’

Rowlinson stretched his arms out and yawned, before leaning across the desk and idly flicking through Priest’s statement. Priest guessed he was trying to work out whether their friendship extended to giving him more information than he already had – but they’d been through a lot together and Rowlinson had Priest to thank for closing the file on the man who had mutilated himself in a wood in South Wales last year, Rowlinson’s own Mayfly victim. A debt was owed and Rowlinson knew it.

‘There will be an autopsy early next week. I don’t know when exactly. Spending cuts mean I can’t get hold of a duty pathologist until the weekend to oversee moving the body but the budget won’t allow for an overtime funded examination, and it’s too late to do it today, not even in a case like this.’

‘But the early indications are . . . ?’

‘Looks like he was asphyxiated. We found traces of cling film in his mouth. There were no defensive wounds, but there’s a needle mark in his neck. Eyes were bloodshot, classic sign of suffocation. We’ll know more when we get a tox report.’

‘This is a murder investigation then?’

Rowlinson rubbed the bridge of his nose. ‘Yep. More damn paperwork.’

‘She’s going to print everything, you know that, right?’