Had she heard that right? Five thousand pounds? It was more than many thieves and other petty criminals were fined, even after repeated appearances in Edendale magistrates’ court. Fry wrote it down just to be sure that she remembered it properly.

‘I wanted to ask you about something you said yesterday,’ she said.

‘Yes.’

‘You mentioned that Patrick Rawson had tried to blame the allegations against him on rival dealers.’

‘That’s right, he did.’

‘I’m wondering if there were any particular rivals who might have had a grudge against him.’

‘Of course you are,’ said Walsh. ‘That makes sense. Well, I’m sure there must have been a few over the years. We didn’t really go into that as a serious possibility, you know. It was just Rawson trying to weasel his way out.’

‘I understand that. But if there was any chance . . . ?’

‘I’ll have a trawl through the intelligence, and send you any names I come up with.’

‘Thanks. It’s appreciated.’

‘Can I ask how Patrick Rawson died?’ said Walsh.

‘It seems his head was kicked in by a horse.’

‘That’s the rumour I heard. Poetic justice, if you ask me.’

‘SO THE RESULTS from the postmortem suggest that Patrick Rawson’s head injury was caused by a blow from a horse’s hoof. The impression of the steel shoe is quite clear in his skull.’

‘He was kicked in the head by a horse?’

‘Or trodden on, while he was already on the ground.’

‘An accident, then,’ said Cooper. ‘An accident, after all.’

But Fry didn’t look too sure. ‘We can’t assume that. We won’t know for certain until we’ve established the sequence of events. And that means tracing the people who were present when he was killed. I’d be very interested to hear their account of the incident. And their explanation of why they rode off and left him to die, if it really was an accident. Even if there was no intention to kill, they could still find themselves facing manslaughter charges.’

Cooper was flicking through the list provided by Horse Watch. Brief details of missing and stolen horses, with phone numbers for the owners. No names, which was a pain. It made you look inefficient from the start when you had to ask an IP’s name.

A 14.2 hh chestnut mare of unknown breed, fifteen years old, suffers from arthritis. Very friendly. Taken from a farm near Buxton.

Dutch Warmblood mare, grey, 15.2 hh, thoroughbred in appearance, very well mannered and friendly. Stolen from a field in Derbyshire.

They all represented someone’s valued animal, often a friend. These were animals that had never been recovered. Who knew what might have happened to them?

There was another list circulating in the office, too. The complainants against Patrick Rawson and his associates in the Trading Standards investigation. There were even more of those, and they all had to be spoken to. But at least Dermot Walsh had supplied full names and addresses.