‘Good.’

‘It’s odd, really.’

‘Why?’

‘Well, I’d have put our man down as the type who badly wants publicity. Needs it, even. He must have realized by now that we aren’t going to share what we have with the press. Wouldn’t you expect him to do something to get the attention of the media? A call to a journalist or something.’

‘Wouldn’t it be a bit risky?’

‘Not as risky as his calls to us. He obviously doesn’t mind taking a bit of a risk.’

‘You’re right, Diane. Let’s think about that for a minute. It might give us a lead on him. What sort of person would take the risk of communicating directly with the police, but avoid the press?’

‘Sir, we don’t know that he has avoided the press,’ said Fry. ‘What if he’s phoned one of the newspapers or the local radio station, and they’ve done nothing about it or haven’t taken him seriously?’

‘He wouldn’t be very happy about that.’

‘No.’

‘Is there any way we can enquire discreetly of our media contacts whether they’ve had a call?’

‘Discreetly? No, there isn’t. No matter how we approached it, they’d sniff out a story. We’d be defeating our own object, unless we can put pressure on them to keep it to themselves.’

‘OK. Maybe it’s not worthwhile. But make sure the press office is briefed on how to deal with the issue if the media do get a call from him.’

‘With discretion?’

‘Exactly.’

‘From our point of view, it’s possible that a lack of response from the media is the best thing that could happen. If he is a publicity seeker, it will infuriate him not to be taken seriously. Then he’s likely to go to greater lengths to attract attention. That’s when he’ll make a mistake.’

‘We hope.’

Hitchens nodded. ‘Thank God we only have the locals to deal with. The last thing we want is to bring the nationals down around our ears.’

‘Amen to that.’

Diane Fry’s phone rang. ‘It’s Pat Jamieson.’

‘Oh, Dr Jamieson. Thanks for getting back to me.’

‘No problem. I’ve dug out the records you were interested in – the Alder Hall bone collection.’

‘Excellent.’

‘But I think I can do better than that. I’ve asked around, and it turns out my predecessor who did the inventory is still in the area, though he’s long since retired. I’ve even got a phone number for you. You can talk to him directly about it.’

‘That’s great,’ said Fry, though the feeling in her stomach prevented her putting the right enthusiasm into the words.

Dr Jamieson sounded disappointed at her restraint. ‘Oh, well, here’s the number, if it’s any use to you,’ he said.

Fry wrote down the phone number that was dictated to her. Then she disappointed Dr Jamieson even more by not bothering to ask him for the name of his retired colleague. She already knew who it was.

‘And what about the remains from Litton Foot?’ she said instead.