Gina grabbed a pen and headed over to the board. The photos of the girl in the shallow grave had been pinned up on a separate board to the girl who fell from the van. Gina threw Wyre a pen, knowing her handwriting would be more legible. ‘As you all know, we have two major cases on the go involving two dead girls. We’ve talked at length about the girl who fell from the van. Any updates?’

‘No further updates, guv,’ O’Connor replied as he swivelled back and forth in his chair, in a half-circle motion.

She grimaced as he spun. ‘Can you stop spinning? I’m struggling to think.’

‘Sorry, guv.’ He stopped and concentrated on what she was saying.

‘Updates?’

Jacob leaned in. ‘Only the blood traces that didn’t belong to the girl in the van, but we already know this. The full report hasn’t come back yet. I chased this up and forensics said it would definitely be tomorrow. As always, they are understaffed and have a backlog on the go.’

‘Nothing new there, then. Jacob and I have just got back from interviewing a Mrs Dawson. Her daughter, Christina, went missing on Wednesday the fourth of April this year. From their photos, both she and her mother have a natural auburn tone in their chestnut brown hair. It was confirmed at the scene that our shallow grave girl had red tones in her hair. Just to confuse matters, the girl who fell from Darren Mason’s van had dyed red hair.’ Her mind ticked over. Their cases didn’t feel so separate any more but she had to keep in mind that the hair colour of the girls may be purely coincidental. ‘We need to keep going through missing persons. We have two teenage girls and only one possible identification, which is unconfirmed at the moment. If the forensics report isn’t in until tomorrow, we work with what we’ve got.’ She leaned across and pushed the two boards closer together. ‘I want you all to consider that these two cases may be related. Two girls dead, both with red tones to their hair, both in their mid to late teens. Both of them turned up in Cleevesford. What are the chances of that over a few days?’

‘Anything back on the girl found in the shallow grave?’ Wyre asked as she finished updating the board with the hair colour connection.

‘There’s still a lot of ground to cover. Bernard and Keith are there with the team and I don’t think they’ll be finished today. We’ve extended the cordon and they’re searching everything. As you all know, this is a painstakingly slow process but as always, we hope they’ll find something that will either lead to the girl’s or the perpetrator’s identity. Her clothing and the blanket she was lying on have been sent to the lab.’

Briggs entered from the back with Annie and took a seat. Gina’s heart rate began to pick up as they both cosied up to each other.

‘We’ve been preparing the press release,’ she continued. ‘We need the public coming forward on this one. After discussing it with Annie, we agreed that issuing a holding statement would be the best course of action. No details. We’ll keep it simple, give nothing about the scene away and make an appeal for witnesses.’

Annie flashed a smile at Briggs as she made notes. He looked up at Gina with a grin on his face. She could tell he was loving the attention and he was loving the fact that she was noticing.

Gina cleared her throat and looked away. ‘Thank you. Let’s hope someone knows something and calls in, at the very least, someone else who is missing a teenage daughter might contact us. Problem is, we still don’t have the time of death. We don’t know if she was killed in the woods and buried close by or if she was transported to the woods to be buried. If so, where had she come from?’

‘What do we know?’ Briggs asked.

‘We know that a potential killer could have managed alone if they’d pulled up on the road nearby. The distance from the pull in area off the small country lane wasn’t too far from where she was buried. The grave wasn’t deep or long enough, maybe her killer didn’t have much in the way of physical strength or maybe they were just sloppy. She was found half-wrapped in a blanket, wearing a white nightdress that had been pulled down. Some care had been taken with her burial but not enough to make sure the local wildlife couldn’t get to her.’

‘Right, good job all,’ Briggs said. ‘Get moving on this one. We’ll let the press know and offer up a formal appeal tomorrow. Cleevesford is going to go mad when it hears we have a second dead girl in the same week. Parents will be worried and so they should be.’ Briggs stood and Annie followed him out.

Gina gazed around the room. Everyone was deadly quiet, waiting for her to speak. ‘O’Connor, would you call all the local schools, put out an alert. I know this will cause a bit of panic but we need our teenage girls to be a little more vigilant until we get to the bottom of what is happening. I’d love to stay longer but Mrs Dawson wants to see the body of the girl who fell from the van. At least we’ll know either way if the girl is her daughter. My only fear is, if she isn’t Mrs Dawson’s daughter, we need to consider that the girl in the shallow grave may be. The timings don’t quite fit but it has been exceptionally hot, and decomposition could have happened a lot faster than expected. We’ll know more when the pathologist’s report comes through. Wyre, look into the Norths and Bryn Tilly. Dig a little deeper and anything you find, update the system immediately as I’ll be working from home tonight. They bought the property at auction on…’ she checked the date she’d noted down earlier, ‘Friday the twentieth of April. Had they visited the property alone beforehand? Both the Norths and Bryn Tilly live in Cleevesford. They have local knowledge and know the roads. The road that led to that part of the woods isn’t well used by people who aren’t local. Check with the auction house too. See if anyone else was unusually interested in the property.

Look at the time, I have to get going.’ Gina scooped up her things. She wasn’t relishing the idea of meeting Mrs Dawson to view a girl who may be her daughter, but it had to be done. She had to be there.