“Agreed,” said Annie. “And I’d lean towards the latter, given the amount of trauma they inflicted on her. Which leads me to believe they had confidence of some control over her even when she was out of their immediate presence.”

“Right,” said Jazz. “She knew them. Maybe they knew where she lived. Again, to our advantage. Now, in addition to having good-enough samples to match with any suspects we might find, there are one or two things I can tell you about the three men already, using an ethnic inference test. It’s not infallible, and it can only be used as an estimation. It won’t stand up in court. In fact, I don’t think the information should leave this room. However, it might help you with your investigation. A comparison of Y-DNA markers to those in a database indicate the three men were all of Asian heritage, from the Indian subcontinent, most likely Pakistan. I can study other databases and haplogroups, but I’m not sure that will help you any further at this point.”

“Pakistan?” said Adrian Moss in disbelief.

“Of Pakistani descent. Yes, but they may never have actually been there. They could be as English as you and me. I’m simply talking about ethnic origins.”

“But living here?” Moss asked.

“The DNA doesn’t tell us where they’re living, but I suppose we can assume that they are here, as their semen was found in the victim at the crime scene. I doubt they sent it via airmail. I’ve started a familial search, but that’s yielded nothing so far. No criminal brothers, mothers or fathers. I can dig further and uncover genetic disorders or high risk of developing certain medical conditions in the future, if you want, but it becomes expensive and time-consuming, and I don’t see what good it does us.”

Adrian Moss looked at Jazz. “Are you sure about the ethnic origin?”

“Yes. Why? Doesn’t it help?”

“It’s a fucking media nightmare, is what it is,” he said. “Excuse my language.”

“I’m not too sure about that,” said Annie. “I think it’s a terrific lead, Jazz. Well done. For a start, it points us in a specific direction. We could be dealing with a grooming situation gone wrong, for example. Wasn’t it the case in Rotherham, Rochdale, Aylesbury and all the other places that those involved in grooming were men of Pakistani heritage exploiting white girls?”