‘No, and that’s probably why I can’t remember his name. He left soon after the case went to court. Gave his evidence, then transferred to another force.’

‘Which one?’

‘No idea I’m afraid.’

HR would know.

‘Was there anyone else on the beach that night, anyone who might have taken the baby for Mary?’ As Carla saw it, between Mary leaving the beach and meeting the unknown officer, she’d managed to hide the baby, which meant if it wasn’t him, someone else must have helped her.

‘Not that we documented, but remember we weren’t on the scene until at least twelve minutes after she’d left the beach.’

‘Yes, but she met your officer much sooner than that, didn’t she?’ Carla said.

‘Yes, three to five minutes, if that.’

‘So it’s just impossible it was anyone other than him who helped her hide the baby.’ It didn’t help, but it closed a blind alley.

‘If it was hidden,’ Bremer said. ‘We are assuming the child lived, but what if Waites got rid of it while Mary was running for help?’

‘Impossible,’ Eyre said. ‘He wouldn’t have had a chance to bury it anywhere other than the beach, and we searched every last inch of it.’

‘Impossible to search every last bit, though?’

‘True,’ Eyre conceded, ‘but he’d have had to dig pretty far down to hide it from us, and we saw no sign anywhere of digging, other than at Aoife’s makeshift grave. Plus,’ Eyre added, ‘the tide has a marvellous way of revealing secrets of the sand, and it never has. Not to my knowledge, anyway.’

‘So we’re back to the baby being alive when Mary left the beach and our unknown officer colluding with her to hide it,’ Carla said. ‘What was the timeline between him meeting Mary and calling for help?’

‘He said he met her, rushed her to the bin when he saw Waites coming up the steps, and then ran back to his patrol car. He estimated four minutes between meeting her and radioing in.’

Carla wished Eyre was as good at names as he was at the rest of the case details. But then a timeline would have been pored over time and again; a junior officer, not so much.

‘But we’ve only got his word for that?’ Bremer asked. ‘The time he took.’

‘Yes. It could be he took longer, but I doubt it. We found Waites near to the scene, and even taking into account his size slowing him down, he’d only managed a distance of about ten minutes.’

‘And Waites never admitted there was a baby?’

‘No, both he and Mary denied any knowledge of it.’

Bremer looked thoughtful. ‘I wonder why she saved it.’

‘Proof,’ replied Eyre.

‘Proof?’