Ledford frowned. ‘Well, you tell me. I’ll send the report to whoever I need to.’

‘I’ll let you know,’ Dani said.

She and Easton headed back out to the street. The number of bystanders along the police tape had grown in the intervening minutes as neighbours on their way to work had become sidetracked by the titillating events.

‘What are you thinking?’ Dani asked Easton.

‘She was kidnapped. God knows who by or why. Somehow she escaped. She ran. The killer caught up with her. Maybe he meant to kill her, or maybe he panicked. We know he was disturbed by Mr Mondy.’

Dani said nothing. Easton’s theory certainly seemed logical enough, which worried Dani, because that meant the death wasn’t just a random act of violence like so many of the murders they dealt with, but was cold and calculated.

‘If that’s true she must have been held somewhere near here,’ Dani said.

‘Possibly. Though she could have escaped from a vehicle.’

Dani looked over at the gaggle of onlookers, still growing by the minute, then at the houses across the road. Many of them still had curtains drawn. At more than one though, she thought she could see people peering out through the windows to get a glimpse of the goings-on. Nosy neighbours. Always the same.

As Dani stared over at the house opposite she thought she saw a figure in a darkened upstairs room. Just the outline of a person standing close to the window, but in the unlit room they were nothing more than a dark shadow. After a few seconds the figure faded away to nothing and a chilling shiver ran through Dani. She continued to look at the spot for several seconds but saw nothing more.

Was she seeing things now?

No, that really would be a first. She wasn’t mad. And she didn’t believe in ghosts. Either someone had been there, trying to be discreet, or it was simply a trick of the eye.

‘She had nothing on her of significance?’ Dani asked.

‘No ID, no purse, no phone, no jewellery.’

‘We need to identify her. We need to know where she was held. We need the murder weapon.’

‘So what do you suggest?’

‘Let’s see if we can trace her last movements. Find out which streets around here, which homes, have CCTV. We may identify her, the killer, a vehicle, something that we can begin to track.’

‘I’ll get on it now.’

Dani looked over again at the house opposite. No, that was no trick of the eye. There was the figure again, the outline even thinner and less visible than before, as it was now further back from the window – almost imperceptible in the shadow of the room, but definitely there.

‘We should also send a team out doing house-to-house around here,’ Dani said. ‘We could have more witnesses. She may even have been held close to here.’