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“Here.” Adam gets the attention of the closest SOCO and passes him the dog. The man takes it reluctantly. “Swab that.”
“You don’t think it’s from the victim?”
“Maybe. But if that was the case, the dog would be covered.” Adam’s phone starts ringing, distracting him from the mess. “And for God’s sake, then someone give him a bath.”
Adam walks out of the house, back into the garden, Jamie following. Free of the cordon, Adam pulls his phone out of his pocket and redials. Romilly answers immediately.
“I saw it on the news,” she says. “It’s another one?”
“Yes.”
“Does it fit?”
“No. There’s nothing here, Milly. If we’re following your hypothesis, he’s number eleven but it’s not written anywhere. No spray paint. Not etched into the wall.” She’s silent at the other end of the phone. He knows she doesn’t believe him. “Sorry, I have to go. I have a job to do.”
He says goodbye and hangs up before she has a chance to protest.
Jamie gives him a look.
“Was that Romilly?” he asks after a moment. “About the case?”
“She has a theory. A connection.”
Jamie looks confused for a moment, then almost double-takes. “You don’t mean … about what happened nearly thirty years ago?”
Adam explains the numbers on the wall of the outhouse, in 1995. The numbers that somehow connect to the ones at the dump site.
“And this one could be the same?” Jamie asks.
“Except there’s nothing here,” Adam says with a sweep of his arm.
“Right. But …”
“But what?”
Jamie pauses. When he starts talking again his tone is measured. “If someone else brought this theory to you, someone without your history together. Without all those unresolved feelings—”
“They’re not unresolved.”
Jamie rolls his eyes. “Fine. Okay then: someone who knows that case as well as she does. Would you have believed them?”
“No! It’s ridiculous,” he repeats. But he stops. Jamie has a point. Annoying sod that he is. A niggle of disquiet starts up in his brain.
“And how is Rom?” Jamie asks after a beat.
Adam glances at him. “You know better than I do, mate. Your missus and her are still friends.”
“I meant, for you. How do you feel talking to her again?”
“Fine.”
“Just fine?”
Adam feels Jamie’s stare. “Weird, okay? If you must know. Like nothing has changed, yet everything has. What’s her boyfriend like?”
“Nice guy. A little dull.” He pauses. “He’s not anything like you.”
“In what way?”
