Lucy had been torn between waiting at the scene and going back to the station. Her primal instinct had been to wait. So she had. The sky, which had been a glorious shade of burnt orange, was turning navy blue. The CSIs had been to photograph and video the scene. Jack Forbes the crime scene manager, had put up some spotlights, which were being run off the noisiest generator Lucy ever had heard. He’d erected a tent over the remains to protect them and also to give the officers some privacy. There was a train track running parallel to this stretch of the woods and Lucy didn’t want any passengers catching an eyeful of the scene.

Dr Chris Corkill, who ran the forensic science department at the university and was also a practising forensic anthropologist, had also been called out. He’d assured Lucy that he would be there within an hour. She looked at her watch again, as if staring at the numbers on the dial would somehow magically make the man appear. She hadn’t seen him since he’d created the surprisingly accurate age-progression portrait of Lizzy Clements, the perpetrator in Lucy’s last murder case, which had led to her identification. Lucy gave an involuntary shudder as she thought back to the impact Lizzy Clements had had on her life and Ellie’s, then tried to shrug off the memory. She hadn’t expected to encounter Chris again, at least not for a few years – let alone a few months.

Lucy hadn’t been back in the tent to look at the skeleton. Mattie had returned to the station to see what missing persons’ reports he could find from the days before either of them had joined up. Her mind was whizzing: who would be buried out here and why? It was a popular place for dog walkers, but only in the last couple of years. The area had been left pretty overgrown and inaccessible for as long as she could remember. She would need to get Col to find out when the council had last maintained it properly, before leaving it to go wild. Lucy was pretty sure it was only because of some European funding grant that the council were actually bothering to do something with it now. That body could have been here since the seventies. Her phone began to ring.

‘It’s me. It’s all over Facebook.’

‘How?’

‘There’s a selfie of the guy who dug it up standing next to the grave. I’ve passed it on to the duty sergeant. Those woods are going to become the most popular place in Brooklyn Bay in the next thirty minutes.’

‘Fucking idiot. I’m going to kick his arse when I get hold of him. I sent him home just after you left. Thanks, Mattie.’

She knew what he meant. Every dog walker, teenager and parent with young children would turn up, pretending they didn’t know what was happening whilst hoping to get a glimpse of the corpse.

She saw Chris Corkill heading towards her and breathed out a sigh of relief – at least now they’d know one way or the other for definite if the skeleton belonged to a human. He was carrying a huge aluminium case and there was a fine film of sweat on his brow. She’d have had a bloody heart attack lugging that from the entrance to the woods. She lifted her hand to wave and he nodded, grinning. He ducked under the police tape and gave his details to the officer in charge of the scene log. He put his case down and held his hand out to Lucy, who took it and shook it firmly.

‘I must say, Detective Inspector, you do seem to get all the exciting cases. I didn’t think our paths would meet again so soon.’

Lucy smiled. ‘That’s one way to put it. Or it could be the fact that we desperately need another DI in this part of the county because my colleague is on long-term sick leave.’

He shrugged. ‘I prefer to believe it’s because you’re so good at your job. So, do you want to talk me through it?’

They began walking towards the white tent, Lucy doing all the talking and Chris nodding his head. Before entering the tent, he opened the case and began to suit up.

‘Better to be safe than sorry. I don’t want to contaminate the site any more than it already is.’

There was a lot of shouting from behind them and Lucy turned to see a grey-haired, stocky man in his sixties trying to barge his way under the tape. The officer with the scene guard booklet dropped it to the ground to grab hold of the intruder, but he pushed him so hard that he lost his footing and stumbled. This gave the man enough time to duck under the tape, and he came running towards Lucy. She stood her ground and put an arm out in front of her.

‘Sir, I’m going to ask you to stop there. You are contaminating a crime scene, for which you could get arrested.’

The man looked at the tall figure of the doctor dressed in the white paper suit ducking through the entrance of the tent, and stopped as he took in the scene around him. The sight of the tent seemed to have knocked the air out of his lungs. He thrust a small, Polaroid snapshot towards Lucy.

‘Have you found my daughter? Tell me. I need to know if it’s her, I’ve been waiting so long to hear from her.’

Lucy took the photograph from him. It showed a teenage boy and girl standing with an older woman, whom she would say was their mum, judging by the family resemblance. The girl had long, brown hair in two bunches, just like the older woman next to her, and she was grinning at whoever was holding the camera. Her front tooth was chipped, making her look a little bit goofy.

‘What happened to your daughter?’

‘If I bloody knew that I wouldn’t be standing here screaming at you lot, would I?’

‘Sir, this is a crime scene: until we have established the facts then I’m not at liberty to tell you anything. If you give your details to the officer you pushed past, we will get in contact with you if there is anything we have to tell you.’

She felt terrible, being so cold and harsh when he was so upset. But the least she could do was to be professional; if that was a human skeleton behind her, she would show it the utmost respect and do everything she could to find out its identity. Not to mention who buried it there. The father, who had been full of anger and bravado, began to crumble in front of her eyes until she was staring at the trembling husk of the man who’d been shouting only seconds ago.

‘Have you found a body? It said on Facebook one had been dug up.’

She silently cursed Facebook and the stupid fool who’d decided to make his snapshot the picture of the day. She would deal with him herself and make sure he understood the consequences of his actions.

‘I can’t say for sure until the forensic anthropologist has taken a look. We have found some remains, but I don’t know if they’re human. I’m sorry, but that’s as much as I can tell you for now.’

The tent opened and her eyes made contact with Chris. She knew then that it was definitely a human body. Turning back to face the man in front of her, she took hold of his arm and guided him back towards the officer. Two more had been summoned and were waiting to escort the man away from the scene.

‘I’m really sorry. If this is something to do with your daughter then I’m sure you would want us to do our job properly, wouldn’t you?’

He nodded.

‘These officers will take you back to your car and get all your details. I promise that as soon as we know more, someone will be around to speak to you. I’m afraid that’s the best I can do at this moment in time.’

He held out the photograph to Lucy and pushed it into her hands.

‘You can look after that for now. She was tall for her age and pretty. All the boys liked Jenny – she was the best thing that ever happened to me and I’ve had to live for twenty-five years not knowing what happened to her that day or why she never came home. It’s a hard thing to live with, not knowing where your child is. My wife died of a broken heart and my son died because I spent so much time looking for Jenny. I’m sorry, I just need to know.’

Lucy smiled at him. She couldn’t comprehend how she would feel if Ellie had mysteriously disappeared without a trace and she’d never seen her again.

‘You go home and we’ll be in touch. I promise I’ll do everything that I can.’

She watched him being led away by the two officers and felt her heart sink even lower than it already was. How had she not known there was still a missing kid out there? Walking back towards the tent she reached Chris, who shook his head.

‘Poor bloke, that’s awful. I can confirm that you have found a human skeleton. I can get a team here first thing in the morning to help me excavate the site. It’s a painstaking job.’

‘That would be great, thank you. Do you know if it’s a female?’

‘I can’t say at the moment; the pelvis is still underground. Once we have it uncovered the sex can be determined with ninety per cent accuracy. Male skeletons are generally larger than females’ and the surface of their bones tends to be rougher. I’ll be able to give you the sex, an approximate age, and possibly the cause of death.’

‘That’s pretty amazing.’

He smiled. ‘I’ll go back and ring around my people; it’s too late to start digging now. I’d hate to miss any evidence because of poor light. My guess is whoever that is, has been underground for at least twenty years, so I don’t think another few hours are going to make much difference.’

‘I suppose not.’ Lucy glanced down at the photograph in her hand. That girl would be a similar age to her now. All grown up, possibly with a family of her own. Suddenly she didn’t know whether she wanted the skeleton to be Jenny or not.