Delahaye turned away to take a phone call. As he was listening, he turned to Gillard with his hand up. ‘So you have identified DNA from the body? Okay, from the comb. Good. Thank you.’ After he had hung up, he pointed at the corpse and said. ‘Our victim is not on the national DNA database.’

‘What other tests are they doing?’ Gillard asked.

‘I sent off a fragment of the shirt for analysis, and fingernails for toxicity tests as I can’t check out the liver or any other organs. As you heard, the lab tried to extract DNA from the hairs on the head, but the roots have deteriorated. The comb was in a plastic sleeve inside a rear pocket of the jeans, which seemingly made for a better environment for DNA preservation. Having just heard what Dr Hancock has to say, I think we should send off some samples of bone and hair to Glasgow for carbon-14 dating. Somehow we’ve got to reconcile the ages of what we have in front of us.’

Hancock rubbed his hands in anticipation. ‘That’s exactly what I would have suggested. This could be a major discovery.’

‘That’s all very interesting, but my priorities are a bit more down-to-earth,’ Gillard said. ‘I need to know as soon as possible if a crime has been committed, it’s as simple as that.’ He was a little alarmed that Hancock seemed to be inserting himself deeper into the investigation, and steering it away from the primary objective.

‘I take your point,’ Hancock said. ‘However, given the minimum length of time it takes to form adipocere, I think your murderer, if he exists, has made a clean getaway.’

Gillard nodded. ‘It clearly seems to be a crime, but this being the pandemic, police resources are quite stretched. Clive, I don’t know if you’d heard, but a metal detectorist was spotted on the site late last night. We’re doubling up on the overnight officers for tonight, but that will be the last. It will be down to the county council to arrange security if you’re planning to pursue anything on the archaeological side.’

Hancock sucked his teeth. ‘That won’t be easy. I might instead be able to persuade the water company to fence it off for the three days we’ve been given. After all they’ve got equipment there, and there are health and safety concerns too. Lots of uncovered pits. Kids running all over the place too.’

Delahaye nodded. ‘When I was there, some children were throwing stones. One hit Arrowsmith, from the water company, fortunately on his hard hat. He wasn’t hurt.’

‘Did anyone see who threw it? Take any pictures?’

‘No, but the water company isn’t popular in the village,’ Hancock said.

‘Arrowsmith was furious,’ Delahaye said. ‘He ran after them shouting “I’m the one trying to put it right, you idiot”.’