Gillard nodded and turned to Kirsty. ‘Did you see whether the cyclist was carrying anything?’

‘No, like I said I really just saw him from the corner of my eye. I can’t exclude that he was carrying something the size of a hammer. If it was as big as a baseball bat, I guess I would have noticed.’

‘The larger and heavier the weapon, I imagine the more likely an assailant would be to ditch it quickly,’ Claire said.

‘Agreed,’ Gillard replied. ‘I’m going to grab half a dozen of your team and search the bushes of the twenty yards either side of the path that Kirsty here saw the cyclist take.’

‘If you wait five minutes, the ranger and his colleagues should be here,’ Claire said. ‘They’ve offered to help. A sniffer dog is on its way from Crawley too, and should be here any time.’

Noon arrived under a glowering, snow-laden sky, as two dozen men and women in wellington boots and rainproofs combed through the undergrowth on either side of the cyclist’s route that Gillard had marked on his map. All sorts of interesting things were found: discarded condoms, a sock, numerous dog toys, chewed tennis balls and fast food polystyrene clamshells. They also found bottles, most plastic but a few glass. The latter, some of them conceivably large and heavy enough to have been the murder weapon, were marked on a map, their locations tagged with either spray paint or labels on the undergrowth, and packed up into evidence envelopes. Snow flurries began again, and the temperature dropped sharply as the sniffer dog, a spaniel called Jimbo, and his male handler went again over the ground that had been covered.

The dog, having been taught the victim’s smell from her clothing, raced around with its nose to the ground in seemingly random loops, going back and forth before plunging off to the right into the woods, and then re-emerging further up the path.

Gillard turned to Kirsty and said: ‘I better get you back now, otherwise you’ll die of starvation. The search will go on all afternoon, and there’s not much else you can do for the moment.’

Following her instruction, he dropped her off at the nearby Sainsbury’s and said: ‘Thank you. You’ve done a really fantastic job giving us a head start on what could be a really difficult case. I’ve already spoken to Yaz to ask him to go easy on you tomorrow. I’ll be in touch. Good luck with the ironing!’

As the grey Vauxhall pulled away, Kirsty gave a brief wave. She was hungry and high on adrenalin. Only then, on her own in a crowded shopping street, did she think about the victim, and that first glimpse of her damaged skull. Those open eyes with snowflakes gathering on the lashes came back to her. The thought of food was suddenly repellent. Shopping would have to wait.

Chapter 3

The inaugural incident room meeting for the case of the murder of Mrs Roy took place at one p.m., just a few hours after the body was found. Crammed into the Khazi with Gillard were DI Claire Mulholland, Research Intelligence Officer Rob Townsend, DCs Colin Hodges and Carl Hoskins, press officer Christina McCafferty, and family liaison officer DC Gabby Underwood.