‘Aye, pretty much. I have a few names.’ She slid off an elastic band, and spread out the pictures which showed a tall smiling youth with a shock of dark hair. ‘Yon fella was called Paul. He’s Polish, and we think his real Christian name is Pavel. Neither Vicky nor Guy have a clue about his surname. He stayed all one summer, 2014 or 2015, they aren’t sure.’

‘That really puts the casual in casual labour, doesn’t it?’ Gillard said.

‘Aye, that it does.’ Rainy undid another stack. ‘This one they called Tom, and he was from one of the Baltic republics. These photos were from 2018, they think.’

‘No surname?’

‘Nope. But they think it was the same Lithuanian guy who went missing in London that year. Tomas Valdovas, I mentioned him before.’ She flicked backwards and forwards through a stack of printouts.

‘Do you think Guy and Vicky are trying to hide the truth?’

She waggled her hand ambivalently. ‘They’re plausibly casual about almost everything. The two of them manage to keep the Anvil show on the road with string and sticky tape. And terrible cooking.’

‘I meant to warn you about that.’

‘Och, the gammon was like shoe leather. It was the day’s special for five pounds, and came with radioactive green slop that might have been mushy peas.’

‘Yuck. Did you get to speak to Rowena?’

‘Yes, and Crystal. There was a bit more paperwork about Dove Cottage, which Crystal managed to dig out. There are two gaps in the tenancy record, 2013 and 2018. It seems that over the years several bar staff have stayed at Dove Cottage, including Tomas Valdovas in the early summer of 2018. Anyway, Valdovas later disappeared in London after taking a National Express coach from Winchester to Victoria. He worked as a fruit picker before doing bar work at the Anvil.’

‘How do we know all that?’ Gillard said.

‘There was a misper inquiry on him at the time, documented by Hampshire Constabulary.’ She logged on to the meeting room screen and keyed into the evidence file.

‘Do we have witnesses?’

‘Not directly, the log says it was video evidence from the coach itself that showed him getting aboard at Winchester on 16 October 2018 and leaving at Victoria. His onward ticket was never used.’

‘I wonder if Hampshire still has the files? I’d also like to know who it was ID’d him.’

‘The case is closed, according to this.’

Gillard rolled his eyes. ‘Pound to a penny they haven’t retained the footage.’

He was wrong. Hampshire Constabulary were able to forward several files to Rainy. The first was a series of video stills taken from within the National Express coach, from a position above the driver’s seat. It showed a young man with a distinctive purple hooded top getting on the bus with a sports bag. He was wearing a dark baseball cap which hid his face, but it became clearer on stills from the camera further back.