Michael Jakes was brought to Claire after he had been swabbed for DNA, fingerprinted and had his phone sent for analysis. Sergeant Babbage had given him the opportunity to sponge his shirt and trousers down before bringing him into the interview room. Jakes, while not exactly fragrant, looked less like a vagrant now. He still had his cycling helmet on, as if he was expecting to leave in a couple of minutes. He stared around at the two low settees, the potted plants, and the view of shrubbery through the partially drawn venetian blinds. Claire had chosen the rape suite on a hunch. She sensed a vulnerability in him and thought quicker progress might be made via a more sensitive approach.

She patted the sofa opposite. ‘Sit down please, Michael.’ She got Babbage to bring in a coffee and offered him one of her own cereal bars. ‘I expect you need breakfast before telling me everything you’ve seen.’ Claire tried not to stare at his errant eye.

He thanked her.

‘So how did you discover the body?’

‘Like I told the PC, I was cycling back home when I saw a car on the other side of the road with its boot open.’

‘The nature reserve side? So you were heading towards Walton.’

‘Yes. There was a man at the boot. I thought nothing of it as I went past. About a minute later, the car overtook me, and I noticed the indicator flashed a bit fast. So I turned around…’

‘Sorry, what was the significance of the indicator?’

‘The car I saw at Tagg’s Island also had a defective indicator. I thought it might be the same one.’

‘So you stopped cycling?’

‘Well, not at first. I tried to give chase but he was too fast.’

Claire smiled, imagining a bicycle trying to overtake a car and force it off the road. The ultimate have-a-go fantasy.

‘I went back to where he had been parked. There were fresh tyre tracks. I saw there was a gap in the railings, so I went through.’

Claire looked up from her notes. ‘I’m sorry, Michael, I don’t quite understand what led you to turn around, cycle back and go into the nature reserve just because you’d seen a car with a defective indicator.’

Jakes was wringing his hands. ‘When I saw the car at Tagg’s Island the other week, I thought the splash I heard was a man dumping a body. So, when I saw the man at the boot so early in the morning, I thought he might be dumping another one.’

Claire put down her pen. ‘That’s quite an intuitive leap. Why were you expecting there to be another body?’

‘I wasn’t, particularly.’

‘You just said you did. All right, did you recognise the man at the boot?’

‘No.’

‘Could you describe him for me?’

Jakes rubbed his chin. ‘He was big.’

‘Just big? Anything else?’