‘Do you have anything for me, Lynch?’ Lottie shouted out to the main office as she flicked through her emails.

Lynch came to stand in the doorway.

‘Elizabeth Byrne had very little online presence. She closed down her Twitter account a year ago, hasn’t posted on Instagram in that time either. She doesn’t appear to use Snapchat at all, and her postings on Facebook are sparse. She used WhatsApp.’

‘Check it out. Have you contacted her Facebook friends?’

‘Working my way through them.’

‘Any joy with Matt Mullin?’

‘The bank is to get back to me in the morning. The head of HR wasn’t in and no one else would give me details.’

‘Get on to that first thing.’

‘Boss? This surveillance job that Kirby and myself are working on, I don’t think it’s getting us anywhere. Do you think it’s time we abandoned it?’

They’d had problems recently with illegal bare-knuckle boxing among the traveller community. Vast amounts of money were being wagered, resulting in plenty of injuries. Lottie felt it was only a matter of time before someone died.

‘What have you discovered over the last three weeks?’

‘Nothing,’ Lynch said.

‘Just wondering if you found the McWards involved in anything underhand?’

‘Don’t recall seeing the name anywhere, but I can check.’

‘What type of detective are you?’

‘A good one,’ Lynch said, folding her arms.

‘Prove it to me then. I want to know where Matt Mullin is. A banker in Germany can’t be that hard to find now, can he?’

Lynch sighed. ‘Could I have a few days off, boss? I know it’s the start of an investigation, but I really need time to—’

‘No. All leave is suspended until this case is solved.’

‘But—’

‘No buts, Lynch. I need everyone. Is that all?’

Lynch grabbed her coat and was out the door before Lottie could call her back. It really was one of those days.

Lottie phoned the state pathologist.

‘Hi, Jane. Did you get to my graveyard victim yet?’

‘Sorry. A sudden backlog here. Hypothermia deaths in February are a new thing for me. I’ve your girl scheduled for the morning. I’ll call you with a time so you can attend.’

Hanging up, Lottie went out to the main office and pulled a chair over beside Kirby’s desk.

‘You were a bit harsh on Lynch,’ he said.

‘I don’t know why, but sparks fly every time we talk recently.’

‘Not just recently, boss, it’s been going on a long time. And not just with Lynch, if you get my meaning.’

She didn’t want to talk about Lynch or Boyd. She’d never really got along with Lynch but she didn’t want anyone else knowing.

‘Did you interview Bridie McWard?’ she said.

‘Same as she told you. Heard screams around 3.15 Tuesday morning. Refuses to come in to make a formal statement. I spoke to her at the site.’

‘And the footage from the camera at the cemetery. Was there anything useful on it?’

‘The tech guys sent me a clip.’ He pressed an icon and a grainy grey image appeared in the centre of his screen. Maximising the size, he sat back and let Lottie watch it. ‘This is 3.07,’ he said.

‘I don’t see anything.’

‘There’s nothing to see except for a change in the light. Hold on and I’ll rewind it.’ He clattered his thick fingers on a couple of keys and the image rolled once more. ‘Look carefully at the road. See that? It’s the lights of a car approaching, but then they disappear. I’d say he swung the car to park on the opposite side of the road, where there’s no camera coverage.’

‘Okay. But we can’t see any people?’

‘No.’

‘Might just be someone dumping rubbish over the wall.’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because the footage confirms a vehicle was parked here for twenty-four minutes.’ He fast-forwarded to 3.31. ‘Look. There’s a swerve of light on the road as if a car is turning.’

‘And?’

‘And that’s it.’

‘Nothing in between? No other cars?’

‘Not a thing. On a Monday night, the town is dead.’

‘So it looks like he drove in from town, stopped for nearly half an hour, then turned and went back towards town. Track our own traffic cams around those times and see if you can pick up the car.’

‘I’ll try.’

Lottie pushed the chair back and moved towards her own office. ‘I want all the residents in the nursing home interviewed. Especially those with windows facing the cemetery.’

‘Tonight?’

‘No. Tomorrow. Did uniforms get anything useful from the housing estate?’

‘Database is being compiled, but nothing worth reporting so far.’

‘And the residents at the traveller site?’

‘No one heard or saw anything.’

‘Same old Ragmullin. Squinting windows and silent houses.’

‘What?’ Kirby scratched his head with the tip of a pen.

‘I want an update at our incident team meeting in the morning.’