‘So that is Mr Valdovas,’ Gillard said. ‘Let’s look at the bar pictures again.’

The two detectives soon spotted the same purple top in several of the photos taken inside the Anvil. The man had a distinctive mass of blond curly hair in the pub pictures that was not evident on the stills from the coach.

‘Maybe he had a haircut,’ Rainy said. ‘Or stuffed it in his cap’.

Gillard use the screen magnifier to get the best of the stills to a reasonable size. ‘Who identified this guy as Valdovas?’

‘Guy Naylor,’ Rainy said. ‘He’s certainly wearing the clothes. There are the same high-top trainers and the hoodie.’

Gillard stroked his chin. ‘That’s exactly what’s making me suspicious. I recognise this face on the coach. It took me a moment to put two and two together. I don’t think it’s Valdovas at all. Look at the shape of the jaw. It’s Aidan Tickett.’

Chapter Twenty-five

The two detectives went from one set of images to the other. From the flash-illuminated pub pictures with all the distortions of colour, to the grainy images from the coach. ‘Aye, I can see why you might think it was Valdovas, because of the clothing.’

‘If it is Aidan Tickett,’ Gillard said, looking through the other attachments that Hampshire had forwarded, ‘it’s an attempt to make it seem like Valdovas wasn’t missing until he got to London. Here, look. Hampshire tracked down the pre-booked coach ticket from Victoria to Warsaw, which was never used. And a matching phone trace which ends at Victoria. There is also a translation of a statement by his mother saying he never came home to Vilnius.’

‘Aye, it’s canny. Let’s say Aidan or Rory Tickett killed him in Dove Cottage, then buried him in the garden. They, after all, are in the digging business.’

‘Okay, I grant you they are main suspects. But it can’t be that straightforward. Why move the body?’

‘When they heard about the new vicar as a tenant of Dove Cottage, maybe.’

‘But why rebury it somewhere it’s likely to be dug up again? By your own digger, of all things. And why try to make the corpse look like it’s Ozzy Blanchard’s by using the comb? Why would anyone but Ozzy do that?’

Rainy sucked her teeth. ‘Ozzy must have been involved. To provide the comb, if nothing else.’

‘I see there’s no DNA sample for Valdovas. Can you contact the international police liaison officer in Vilnius; the Met will have the number. We need to get a DNA sample from any clothing she has. We can then match it up with the bloodstain DNA at Dove Cottage.’

‘That’s a canny plan. I’ll get on to it.’