“Possibly not. But from what you’ve told me, and Jazz’s analysis bears this out, all we really know is that the victim had rough sex with three men of Pakistani descent, and it seems they tossed her naked out of a moving van in the middle of nowhere. The murder took place after that. Beyond that, it’s all speculation.”

“I’m sorry,” said Jazz. “But we got nothing from the murder scene, nothing from the killer except scuffs in the grass and the shoe or boot impressions Stefan’s working on.”

“But they still threw her out of a moving vehicle,” Annie insisted. “That’s attempted murder, for a start. And I happen to think our speculations are very reasonable given the circumstances.”

“Maybe they did it for a laugh,” Banks argued. “Kids can be irresponsible. And cruel. And that wasn’t what killed her. Or the sex. She walked for about ten minutes back along the road before someone stopped and did the killing.”

“Fair enough,” said Annie. “You’re the boss. So what exactly does this new information tell us?” She went to the whiteboard and took up a red marker, noting down the points as she talked. “I know it’s mere speculation, but we have assumed the van was traveling from the northeast. Most likely it was heading for West Yorkshire, or maybe Greater Manchester. We might look more closely at communities with a large Asian population. There are bound to be a few in Teesside or Tyneside, not to mention West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester.”

“I agree that’s it’s a useful lead,” said Banks, “and we have to work with it. We also need to keep quiet about it until we have more to go on. The three men probably lived in an area with a high Asian population. If you tie that in with the kebab and pizza takeaway, or tattoo parlor, for example, you might be able to narrow it down even further. But we still need to find out who the victim is. That’s what’s most likely to lead us to our suspects.”

Annie sat down dejectedly. “The drawing’s in the papers and on TV. It’ll be shown again tonight and over the weekend. I don’t know what more we can do. Someone has to recognize her.”

“Maybe that’s the problem,” Banks said.

“What?”

“Somebody does recognize her, and that’s why they’re not talking.”

“Scared?”

“Look how badly she was beaten,” Banks said. “It sends a message. Anyone who does know who she is very likely knows who did it, and why. If she’s got any sense, she’s got to be scared to death of him, or them.”

“Then we need to find this person as fast as we can,” said Annie.

“WELL, THIS is nice,” said Annie, raising her glass. “Cheers.”