Mattie and Browning walked out of the imaging unit and down to the locker rooms to retrieve their stab vests. Lucy knew they were doing it for show, to please her. The reality was that neither would probably wear them. She walked past Tom’s empty office and wondered where the hell Patrick was now. Even if she’d decided to run the theory by him, he wasn’t here to listen to her. He was useless.

She went to find Col, giving him the list of the historic killers and their victims, and asked him to find out anything he could about them. He looked at her quizzically and she whispered, ‘Keep this between you, me, Mattie and Browning for now. If you can find anything that ties our victims together – similarities, the slightest thing, no matter how trivial – let me know. Please, it’s really important.’

Her palms damp and her heart racing, she realised she should have insisted on going with Mattie and Browning; she was never going to settle waiting here. Returning to her office, she logged onto the computer to see what updates there were about the body in the woods. She was livid to see that there were very few comments on the digital case that was running. Picking up her phone, she dialled the number for Dr Corkill at the university to see what the hold-up was. He answered sounding flustered.

‘Hello?’

‘Chris, its DI Harwin.’

‘Lucy, how are you? It’s great to hear from you; I’ve been trying to get hold of your partner DI Baker for a couple of days now. He hasn’t returned any of my calls – is he off work?’

She felt the hackles on the back of her neck rise. ‘No, he isn’t, he’s swanning around here somewhere doing sod all. I’m sorry, Chris – I should have phoned you myself.’

‘Don’t you be sorry – it’s nothing to do with you. I just wanted to let him know about something I found in my research. It’s probably nothing, but it’s worth mentioning.’

‘Would you mind telling me? I think I’m going to take over the case from him. You see, he’s just been given a temporary promotion, so he’ll be even less inclined to bother with any follow-ups.’

‘Of course not. I suppose that explains him not returning my calls.’

Lucy swore under her breath. No it fucking doesn’t; he’s just useless.

‘Have you heard of the Carnival Queen Killer?’

She paused for a moment. ‘Yes, it rings a bell. That was a very long time ago though, wasn’t it?’

‘Oh God, yes. It was back in the early eighties. A man named John Carter murdered three young women who had been crowned carnival queens. One of the victims’ bodies was found strangled and naked just a few yards from where this skeleton was uncovered.’

Lucy could feel the cogs in her head start to whir as they began sorting all the information that she had stored in there into the right order. ‘Do you know what happened to him? Did he get released?’

‘No, he died of cancer in prison after being incarcerated for a few years.’

‘Oh, that’s a shame.’

‘I know, it would have been great in a terrible way if he’d served his time and been let out. At least you would have had a name to go on. I don’t know if any of this is any help to you, but it’s definitely interesting.’

‘Yes, it is. Thank you. Are we any nearer to identifying the body?’

‘Well, as I told Patrick, she was definitely female. A rough estimate for her age would be between twelve and twenty years old. I believe the forensic odontologist is an old university friend of Dr Maxwell, so she might have an ID a lot quicker than usual if she’s called in a favour.’

Lucy felt her heart soar at this news – finally, something good. This put Jenny Burns back in the picture once more.

‘Once again, I can’t thank you enough, Chris.’

‘It’s my pleasure, Lucy, Your department makes my rather dull life really quite exciting at times.’

She laughed as she ended the call, then slammed the palms of her hands against her desk. When she got hold of Patrick she was going to strangle him with her bare hands. There was no excuse for the level of incompetence he was showing. She’d never up till now had a reason to report any of her colleagues to the professional standards department. She always preferred to tackle any issues herself, but this had gone too far. He hadn’t shared vital information or followed up on leads that could have put Jenny Burns’ family out of the misery they’d been in for over twenty-five years. It was inexcusable and she wouldn’t let him get away with it.

She looked up the address for Jenny Burns’ parents and hoped that they still lived there. Killers normally carried out their first crime quite close to home and something along the lines of eighty per cent of murder victims knew their killers. So where did this lead them? She could feel the answer in there; the information was floating around in the murky grey area of her brain. She just needed to grab hold of it and draw it out. She headed out of the office and down to the car park. Mattie and Browning had taken a plain car; Patrick must have taken another. She wasn’t going to mess around so she walked to her Fiat; she would go and visit Jenny’s dad. He might be able to shed some light on the mess inside her head.