‘Not yet. To be honest I’m not that concerned about whether or not the land is consecrated. The priority is identifying the nun and finding out who murdered her. That said, it can be used to our advantage as a cover to get information out of the diocese and identify the nun. Once you’ve done that, I’ll review the situation regarding the building site.’

‘Should I report back to you directly?’

‘I’m in meetings at Scotland Yard for the rest of the day and away at a family wedding over the weekend. DI Stanley will supervise you in my absence. Are you rostered to work this weekend?’

‘No, sir, but I’m more than happy to do so without overtime, and re-roster my rest days.’

He nodded. ‘You can claim overtime if your inquiries justify it. Same goes for DC Boon if you need him. We can have another meeting in DI Stanley’s office on Monday morning at ten. Is there anything else for now?’

‘I was wondering if it would be worth getting an anthropologist to do a facial reconstruction. It’s a fairly new thing which involves—’

‘I’m fully aware of what it is, Tennison. Circulating a facial reconstruction this early in the investigation could lead to a lot of erroneous identifications and cause more problems than it’s worth. I’m happy for a forensic odontologist to examine the victim’s teeth to give an estimate of her age at death. If you do identify the victim and recover any dental records, the odontologist can then compare the two; that way, you’ll have a confirmed ID.’

Jane already knew, from a previous investigation, what a forensic odontologist could do and thought she’d raised it in her report. ‘Thank you for letting me continue the investigation. I won’t let you down,’ she said.

‘That remains to be seen. From what I’ve heard, you had quite a chequered history during your eight years’ service in the Met. My advice to you is, be a team player and don’t go behind people’s backs. It only causes friction and distrust.’

Jane thought he was criticising her part in the downfall of DCI Bill Murphy. ‘DCI Murphy was a corrupt officer, and a jury found him guilty,’ she said. ‘If I had to do the same again, I would.’

‘And I commend you for that. I knew Murphy when he was a DS. Like you, I served with him on the Flying Squad. Back then he was an honest, devoted detective who quickly rose to the rank of DCI. Unfortunately, he got himself in financial difficulties and was going through a divorce when he started taking bribes. Then, as you know, he progressed to organising armed robberies.’

‘It’s no excuse for what he did. His actions endangered the lives of other officers. It’s lucky no one got killed.’

‘I agree with you.’