‘He also had on his phone a recent photograph of Neville Rollason, sitting at a table in what appears to be HMP Spring Hill refectory,’ Gillard said.

‘All that just can’t be coincidence,’ Morgan said.

‘Agreed. He seems to be cropping up in rather too many places for comfort. He’s under arrest, and I’m hoping to get to interview him under caution as soon as this meeting is over. However, while the temptation might be to think we have solved this case, I need to point out a few awkward facts about Jakes. One, he appears to have arrived by bicycle at the crime scene, which obviously precludes him having just dumped the body himself. Two, Jakes cannot drive. Three, according to the second witness, the dog walker, it was Jakes who first suggested calling the police. It’s only a tentative conclusion, but it’s hard to believe that this man had more than a peripheral involvement in either of these crimes.’

‘That photo on Jakes’s phone must have been Rollason’s own doing,’ said Morgan. ‘We told him not to do anything stupid to compromise his new identity.’

‘I thought he wasn’t supposed to have a phone under his licence conditions,’ Claire said.

‘It is an open prison. He is allowed out.’ Morgan shrugged, his expression returning to the defensive pout he had worn throughout the meeting.

The next phase of the meeting covered some of the forensic details, comparing injuries and marks on the two bodies.

‘We would really like to pin down the method and location of the killings,’ Gillard said. ‘Rainy, do you want to expound on your work on that?’

‘Aye, sir.’ Rainy Macintosh came to the laptop next to the projector and hit a few keys. ‘The biggest mystery we have in both these cases is how exactly so much pressure was applied, gradually, to asphyxiate these two victims.’ She displayed photographs of the two bodies, to gasps from those present who had not seen them before.

‘The marks on Rollason were made through clothing, but do not include the diamond pattern we saw on the first, which we now see as irrelevant to the cause of death.’

‘How much pressure?’ Hoskins asked. ‘Do we have an exact figure for that yet?’

‘Och no, Carl. There is no such thing as a standard human body, with mechanical tolerances. Doctor Delahaye’s guesstimate was half a tonne or more. With Rollason it may be higher still. That led us to look for industrial locations. To be honest, we’re not making much progress on these. While we’ve eliminated any premises within a mile of the site of the first body, there are hundreds of possibilities further out, including enormous industrial estates around Heathrow and Slough. It could take months.’

‘What about the mesh suit on the first victim?’ asked DI Morgan.