‘Okay, crowd, gather round. Try to stay with me. The girl from the van, we have further results back from her clothing. The girl in the shallow grave, we have the results back from her clothing and the blanket she was lying on and partially wrapped in. You can see how, from the photo.’ Gina pointed to the board with her pen. ‘The site is still being worked but the clothing and blanket were sent to the lab to be processed while the excavation is still going on. We have a link.’

The room was silent. O’Connor stopped tapping the desk. Jacob titled his head, anticipating what was going to be said and Wyre crossed her legs as she rolled forward on her chair, closer to the table.

‘A link, guv?’ Jacob said.

Gina smiled. ‘I can see you’re all excited. I’m not as good at explaining these things as Bernard or Keith but both of them are working flat out at the site and in the lab. I’ll try to get this correct, excuse any mispronunciation. Latin is not my best subject. Cast skins of Anthrenus verbasci were found on both of the girls’ clothing. To you and me, that is a carpet beetle. They typically grow to three millimetres long and to anyone who’s had the misfortune of dealing with an infestation will know they are a nightmare pest. The larvae chew on textiles, carpets, clothing, and then tend to hatch in spring and summer, leaving these little casts behind. There is also a further link. The microfibres found on the casts both match. The creatures were living in the exact same carpet.’ Gina reached into her files. ‘Here’s a lovely poster showing the lifecycle of a carpet beetle. O’Connor, could you Blu-Tack it to the wall?’

‘Yes, guv.’ O’Connor pulled a packet of Blu-Tack from a drawer and began fixing the poster to the wall.

‘It’s horrible, guv,’ Wyre said as she began to scratch her arm.

Gina agreed as a shiver ran down her spine. She’d be horrified if she found those little grubs and beetles all over the place. That would be another thing for her to worry about. She was definitely going to check the dusty corners of her house, armed with a vacuum, when she got home.

‘Agreed. Mini-freaks of nature. Before we all join in with your scratching, we best move on. The other thing they found in the clothing of the shallow grave girl is a hair and, get this, the follicle is attached. It has been run through the database and there isn’t a match. There is, however, a DNA match to the blood that we found on the van girl’s clothing. As you remember, it was confirmed that this blood did not belong to our victim. So, we have blood and hair belonging to another person, not either of our victims.’

‘Wow, this is huge,’ Jacob said.

‘I know. What is happening to these girls, and on our doorstep? We are working on the theory that our perpetrator is local given that they knew about Senton Lane. Only locals really take this shortcut.’

‘Any more on the hair?’ Jacob asked.

Gina began adding to the board details as she spoke. ‘The hair is brown, barely noticeable auburn tones so this hair might not mean anything, and about thirty centimetres long. The root is grey, which doesn’t fit the pattern. Whoever this hair belonged to was certainly a lot older than the girls. Again, this adds slightly to the red hair connection. All different strengths of red but the connection is clear. Any more information, I’ll feed it to you as I get it. Going back to Mrs Dawson and her missing daughter. Her DNA has been sent to the lab and she gave us full permission to keep it on the database. She wants her daughter found. We’ll soon find out whether her daughter is the girl who was found in the shallow grave.’ Again, Gina hoped the girl wasn’t Julia’s daughter but there was a chance. She was about the right age and matched Christina’s height. ‘The lab are going to run the shallow grave girl’s DNA through the database and get back to me. This was a little harder to obtain but we have it, which is great news. Results should be in anytime now.’ She checked her watch. Maybe they were running late. They all knew what time the briefing was and she’d fast-tracked the tests.

‘Two girls and we have no idea who they are. We could really do with a break on identifying these girls,’ Wyre said as she tightened her ponytail and neatened her fringe.

‘Certainly could. We will find out what is happening but as it stands, again, working on the theory that there is evidence to link the two girls, we are looking at a murder and kidnap at the very most. No doubt, there could be another story behind what we see, but it isn’t going to be a good one either way. We will need to know if there are any signs of trauma on our shallow grave victim but we know our van victim was in a right state. She could have escaped from somewhere, but where, and why? There are drugs involved, which is why we are liaising with Smith and his team. It’s not our best lead but I’ll go with anything at the moment. We need to make sure we’re on top of what’s happening. Link information. Share with them, them with us. Our van girl was on heroin. If we pull any dealers in, we can check the blend that they sell, this may provide a match for what was shown in the girl’s toxicology report. I know I’m giving you all a lot of information and it’s overwhelming, but bear it all in mind as you proceed. Always have one eye on the board, check the system for updates, as these will constantly be added. As soon as you have any information, update, don’t wait – that is the motto.’

‘I suppose we’re all on free overtime? I’ll call Mrs O and tell her not to wait until I get home to have dinner.’

‘I’m really grateful for all that you do. The community is really grateful and, most of all, these girls deserve to rest in peace and to do that we need justice. Justice involves catching whoever is behind this. I have a daughter. My daughter was a prize pain in the arse as a teen but no one deserves this to happen to them. If I were the parent of these girls, I’d be so thankful for what you’re all giving up to be here. I’m sorry the rewards aren’t huge, I’m not getting any overtime either. I know you all put in more than you get out. We all do at times like this. I’ll take whatever time you can spare.’

‘I’m with you, guv,’ Wyre replied.

‘Count me in. Amber hasn’t texted me all day. I now sense that I have all the time in the world. One day I’ll meet someone who understands,’ Jacob said, half-jokingly.

Gina smiled. She couldn’t have chosen a better team to work with. ‘Right, in that case, O’Connor and Wyre, you will both work closely on our shallow grave victim. Jacob and I will work on the van victim. We’ll reconvene at the next briefing and discuss what we’ve found. I can’t promise I won’t interfere in the case of the grave girl though. In fact, scrub what I just said. I’m on both cases.’

PC Smith passed the room as he headed towards the toilets. ‘Smith, can you come here a moment?’

He glanced at the toilet door, then back at Gina. ‘Of course. How are things going with the case?’

‘We need to be kept up to date at real time with any drug-related finds or investigations. I’ll come and chat with you in a while, update you on where we’re at and why it’s so relevant.’

Smith began squirming on the spot. ‘Okay, guv. I’m desperate for a leak. I’ll catch up with you in a minute.’ Jacob laughed as Smith hurried out of the room.

Gina stared at the board. The words ‘help her’, written under the girl from the van’s photo stood out. She pointed to the words with her pen. ‘Given that we have a definite link between the two girls, we need to seriously start thinking about a third girl. ‘Help her’ – who was our van girl referring to? We have no time to waste. I don’t want a third girl to go through what these poor girls have been through.’

Gina’s phone began to buzz. She took the call and hurried to the back of the room. A huge smile spread across her face.

‘What is it?’ Jacob asked.

‘Our database has come up trumps. Our girl from the shallow grave has been identified as eighteen-year-old Simone Duxford. O’Connor, Wyre, call Bryn in on a voluntary basis, and ask him if he knows a Simone Duxford. Jacob, I think you and I should pop over to Big North Project Investments and talk to Stan and Elizabeth. If we hurry, we’ll be back by lunchtime. Someone will have to inform her family. Paula, Harry, can I task you with this too?’ O’Connor and Wyre nodded.