‘I don’t want us to get distracted, Rob. We have to focus on our so-far unidentified corpse. Everything else is secondary.’

‘Received and understood.’

‘A lot now depends on how clever the Willow women have been about communicating with each other. We only need a few unguarded messages or texts and we’ll know what’s going on.’

Gillard felt his phone vibrate. Looking down he saw Dr Delahaye’s number. ‘I’d better get this,’ Gillard said to Townsend before answering the call.

‘Hello Craig,’ Delahaye said. ‘I’ve just had an email from Glasgow University giving the analysis of samples from the skeleton and teeth of the body. We have clear conclusions on the victim’s age at time of death. He was between twenty and twenty-five.’

‘Are they sure? Ozzy Blanchard was fifty-two.’

‘It’s quite robust, based on the known rate of decay of a particular acid in tooth dentine. And it’s reinforced by what they call morphological characteristics of the skeleton, which basically means observable wear and tear on bones. They’ve separately managed to extract some DNA from the root pulp in those teeth, and it doesn’t match Mr Blanchard’s elimination sample, nor anyone on the national DNA database. Those are two independent tests, Craig. It’s clearly not the body of the man you thought.’

Gillard thanked him and hung up.

‘The body isn’t Ozzy. We’re going to have to rethink everything,’ Gillard said.

‘So Ozzy Blanchard isn’t dead?’ Townsend said.

‘Probably not. He certainly isn’t Rissington Man. But Rissington Man possesses Ozzy’s comb. The question is, who planted it on him, and why?’

‘Maybe we’ll get the chance to ask Ozzy,’ Townsend said.

‘Right now, finding him is my top priority. And I think Crystal Willow will lead us to him.’

Gillard was on his way home at eight thirty when Townsend called him. Answering on the hands-free, he heard the research intelligence officer tell him that they had a trace for the location of Crystal Willow’s phone at the time of Gillard’s call to it that afternoon. ‘It wasn’t in Devon at all,’ Townsend said. ‘It was a caravan park a few miles west of Reading. I alerted Thames Valley Police who are on their way there now.’

‘That’s good news,’ Gillard replied. ‘If she’s got any sense she’ll have got herself a new phone and skedaddled. So for that reason I’d like you to check for any new numbers that turn up on either Vicky or Rowena Willow’s phones this afternoon or evening. Chances are it will be Crystal’s new burner phone.’

‘Got to give you credit, sir, you’re always one step ahead.’