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Arlington.’
    ‘In the course of a search of the premises owned by the accused.’
    ‘That is correct,’ DC Gray stated firmly.
    In an almost offhand tone, Sharon Owen asked, ‘The search was legal, of course, backed by a search warrant?’
    ‘Of course.’
    Sharon brushed away an errant lock of blonde hair from her eyes; her fingers wandered down her cheek to rest, touching her lips thoughtfully as she held the glance of the woman in the witness box. ‘DC Arlington found the scalpel. Who was it first made contact with Raymond Conroy, in the course of the investigation?’
    ‘Who first questioned him, you mean?’
    ‘That’s not what I asked,’ Sharon corrected her. ‘Who made the first contact ?’
    There was a short silence. ‘That would have been me,’ Paula Gray admitted carefully.
    ‘How did that come about?’
    ‘We met sort of casually, in a pub.’
    ‘Casually? By chance? Or were you acting under instructions at that time?’
    The witness hesitated, then nodded. ‘I was acting under orders. That is correct.’
    Eric leaned forward in the silence that followed. Sharon Owen had proceeded with care to this point, but now she was about to make use of the claims that her client in the dock had made. In the long discussions that had taken place in Durham Prison, neither Eric nor Sharon could be certain that Raymond Conroy had told them the truth but it was about to be tested in the courtroom.
    ‘Can you explain the circumstances of the first meeting?’
    Paula Gray’s tongue flickered over her lips. She took a deep breath. ‘We had been making enquiries in the area for some time and we received various information about the habits of the accused, his use of certain pubs in the area. I was instructed to attend one of these pubs.’
    ‘To seek out Raymond Conroy?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Why him?’
    Paula Gray’s tone was careful. ‘His name had come up. Or at least, his description. He didn’t talk to many people. And he was thought a bit … odd. An outsider in the area.’
    ‘When you met him, you were in uniform?’
    ‘Of course not.’
    ‘Of course not. How were you dressed?’
    The witness frowned, shrugged. ‘I can’t remember exactly.’
    Sharon smiled. ‘But I imagine it would have been casually. An attractive woman, dressed for an evening in a local pub. So the idea was to try to attract his attention, perhaps get into conversation with him.’
    DC Gray hesitated. ‘That is correct.’
    ‘And did he make contact?’
    ‘Almost immediately. Yes. When he saw I was alone, he approached me. We had a drink together. After that, there were other occasions, several conversations.’
    Sharon raised her eyebrows. ‘Other occasions? Several conversations? Was a record kept of these meetings? Were you wired, for instance?’
    After a moment’s hesitation, the detective constable nodded. ‘I was wearing a wire, yes. For my own safety as much as anything else. There was a back-up team in the area. We could not be certain what would happen.’
    Sharon nodded, frowning. ‘But no record of these … conversations have been put forward in evidence.’
    Paula Gray shrugged. ‘There was nothing on the tapes which could help us.’
    ‘The conversations between the two of you were innocent , you mean?’
    Paula Gray wriggled slightly. ‘You could say that. But I still felt uncomfortable. There was something about him, his attitude….’
    ‘So the continued meetings … they were effected because you felt uncomfortable about him. Yet there was nothing said, specifically, which could have connected him to the killings?’
    DC Gray chewed at her lip. ‘Well, not really. Nothing that could be produced for evidentiary purposes. But we did talk about the murders. He didn’t seem to take them seriously.’
    ‘How do you mean?’
    ‘He seemed to think the women had been prostitutes and were facing the kind of risks that … but in fact only one of the women had been working the streets. I didn’t like