‘It might be. But we’re downgrading the priority of the phone calls until we have further evidence.’

‘With respect, sir, we have an offender here who’s going to kill somebody soon.’

‘Strictly speaking, he’s not an offender, DS Fry. Not until he actually does something illegal.’

‘He’s making threatening calls.’

‘Who has he threatened?’ said Hitchens.

Fry grimaced. ‘Nuisance calls, then.’

‘He’s wasting police time. That’s the worst we can say about him at this stage.’

‘He needs psychiatric help.’

‘Well, I’d agree with you there. He definitely has a problem of some kind. But whether he’s actually intending to kill anybody, we don’t know.’

‘What’s the next move, then?’

‘We wait. Patrols will check all the possible sites we gave them, when practicable.’

‘When practicable?’ said Fry. ‘That could be never.’

Hitchens continued with a small frown. ‘And we hope that Forensics can come up with something at the locations he made the calls from. They have two scenes now, so their chances of finding matching traces are increased with each call.’

‘And I suppose we sit here on our backsides and hope he’ll call again, just to make it a bit easier for us.’

‘Possibly,’ said Hitchens. ‘But there are plenty of other enquiries to concentrate on in the meantime.’ The DI looked up at Cooper as he came back into the room.

‘How is the Audrey Steele enquiry progressing, Ben? I’m thinking we ought to make it a higher priority before word gets out. There could be a strong public reaction to an incident like this, and we don’t want to look as though we’re not doing anything.’

Cooper hesitated. As one of the lowliest members of the department, there was always a danger of being caught between conflicting instructions from his senior officers.

‘DS Fry suggested I should pursue other avenues before considering the possibility that an unidentified body was involved,’ he said, choosing his words carefully.

‘I know. A mixing of ashes. And how are you getting on?’

‘All the ashes I’ve managed to collect have gone for analysis. I’m not sure if they’ll tell us anything, though. Theoretically it shouldn’t be possible to mix up bodies at the crem, unless it was done deliberately, so it may still be just the one cremation we need to explain.’

‘That’s what I’m worried about. We mustn’t appear to be ignoring the more serious possibility, Ben.’

‘No, sir.’

Cooper waited. The DI’s concerns about public perception might well supersede Diane’s judgement on the use of resources, but it was a debate he’d prefer to stay out of. Alongside him, Fry was silent, but he could feel her growing tense. He guessed the debate might continue later, when he was out of earshot.

‘The funeral directors would have to be at the centre of the business, wouldn’t they?’ said Hitchens.