‘Hudson and Slack, yes. I’ve got them listed as my next port of call.’

‘To sum up, then. We have human remains that turn out to be those of Audrey Steele, who was never reported missing because she died of natural causes and was cremated with the full works. Or so her family were led to believe. Right so far?’

‘Yes, sir.’

Hitchens tapped again, then pointed the end of the pen at Fry. She could see a trace of his saliva gleaming on the cap.

‘The question is, if the ashes weren’t mixed up, who or what was cremated in Audrey Steele’s place? You can’t just stick an empty coffin in the hearse. Its weight would be a giveaway, for a start. The bearers would notice. The cremator technicians would notice. We’d have to imagine a conspiracy involving at least half a dozen people, if not more. Very risky.’

‘We’ve been over this. The obvious thing to do would be to put something else in the coffin instead of the corpse. But the crematorium staff still might notice, if the ashes weren’t right.’

‘Mr Lloyd sent through the computer records for the day in question,’ said Cooper. ‘That was helpful of him, since it never occurred to me to ask for them. There’s nothing unusual about the data for Audrey Steele’s cremation.’

‘Of course, no one would notice,’ said Hitchens, ‘if you put a different body in the coffin.’

‘An actual murder victim, you think?’ said Fry.

‘What better way to dispose of the body? No victim, no forensics. Perfect.’

‘And even if the remains of Audrey Steele turned up, we would never be able to match them to a missing person.’

‘Precisely, Diane. Because she was never missing.’

‘If it hadn’t been for the facial reconstruction –’

‘And DC Cooper’s persistence,’ said Hitchens.

‘Well, yes, and that.’

‘Have you still got the list of missing persons, Ben?’

‘From eighteen months ago? Yes. But there’s a big problem with it, isn’t there? We don’t know whether we’re looking for a male or a female. We have no idea of age, height, skin colour. Nothing. All we have are ashes.’

‘Yes, that is a problem,’ said Hitchens. He paused for a moment. ‘So what do we make of Melvyn Hudson? He’s the boss at Hudson and Slack, isn’t he? So he’d be in the best position to interfere with a body.’

‘Would it be possible on his own?’ asked Cooper.

‘The staff at Hudson and Slack might know something. They could have helped to cover up, at least. It’s one of those jobs, isn’t it? An “us and them” sort of job. No one else understands or appreciates us, so we have to stick together, no matter what,’ said Fry.