‘Meaning, how did she end up the way she did?’

‘Maybe she was kidnapped,’ Shelton replied. ‘Happens all the time.’

‘I’m sure she was,’ Ben said. ‘Unless she went willingly, which I’d doubt. But think about it. Let’s suppose that a bunch of Satanists, mostly drooling perverts with psychiatric control issues, are looking for their next victim. I’d imagine that any reasonably pretty young female would fit the bill for them.’

‘The textbook choice,’ Shelton said. ‘So?’

‘So, why not pick a runaway, or some poor homeless kid, or a drug addict, someone nobody’s going to miss? Have you any idea how many people go missing each year? Easy pickings, and you could easily tart them up to please the scumbags who gather to watch them being butchered. Instead they choose the daughter of a high-profile politician, whose tragic death is bound to generate big headlines. Which means they now have a lot of work to do to cover their tracks.’

‘Okay,’ Shelton said.

‘Think about what happened after the ritual was over, when the sickos had all disbanded and gone home. Someone had to take charge of cleaning up. The body had to be removed and disposed of, but they couldn’t just chop it up and feed it to the pigs or bury it in quicklime.’

‘Thank you,’ Shelton groaned, clutching his belly. ‘Just what my stomach needed after seeing that video.’

‘Her death had to be accounted for,’ Ben said. ‘The sacrifice took place more than a week before the car accident, so they kept the body on ice all that time while they arranged what must have been quite a tricky operation. Most faked accidents are obvious setups. If the police were fooled, it must have been fairly convincingly done. To pull that off takes planning, manpower and money. Why go to all that trouble, if any other victim would have served their purpose just as well? Why Annie Dudley?’

‘As a warning to her father, maybe,’ Wolf said, hunting for ideas.

Ben looked at him. ‘And why would that be?’

Wolf shrugged. ‘Don’t ask me, pal. Maybe he knows more than he should.’

‘Which makes our man Dudley a definite subject of interest,’ Ben said. ‘I want to know more.’ He turned to Shelton. ‘Over to you, Maestro.’