The more she thought about it, the more it made her head hurt. Tomorrow they’d go and speak to Arthur. That would let them get a sense of what he was like, allow them to draw some more information out of him and — hopefully — start to make some progress in what was fast looking like an impossible case to crack.

33

With the dawn of a new day, Caroline felt physically better, but Operation Forelock had still left her head in a mess. It hadn’t cleared by the time she got to the office, but she was alert enough to notice that Dexter’s usual cheery enthusiasm seemed long gone.

‘You alright, Dex?’ she asked, sitting down next to him at his desk.

‘Yeah. Yeah.’

‘What’s the matter?’

‘Up all night, trying to work this out in my head. There’s definitely something missing.’

‘You mean on the historical side of things?’

‘Yeah. You’re right. It doesn’t add up. We’ve got too much going on. Problem is, we’re working backwards rather than starting with the evidence and going forwards.’

‘We haven’t got any evidence. Not really.’

‘There’s always evidence. We’re making too many assumptions. We’re jumping ahead. Let’s look at pure facts. The body was left on the rocks by Normanton Church. That’s a fact. Anything more than that in terms of symbolism, motive — all guesswork. Hear me out. Blunt force trauma to the back of the head and strangulation. The strangulation says the killer was stronger than Roger Clifton, but the whack on the back of the head could’ve taken him down and given the killer enough of a head start to strangle him. Am I right in thinking there weren’t any real signs of a struggle?’

‘Apparently not.’

‘So that tells me we’re looking at someone potentially weaker than Roger who wasn’t taking any chances. But they had to gain access through the gate, break the lock, then lift his body onto the rocks. Not strong enough to feel confident about beating him in a fight, but enough to lift his dead body and lay it out?’

‘An accomplice. Alice Clifton kills him in a fit of rage. Patrick Walsh — big burly rugby player — does the heavy lifting, so to speak.’

‘Again, that’s a theory. No evidence at all. But — and forgive me for my own theory here — what if we’re looking at it the wrong way? What if the head trauma and strangulation were because the killer wanted to make damn sure Roger was dead? Not a fight gone wrong or a cover-up, but planned in advance with a belt and braces approach.’