separated from their small bones. But, as we know, those are the bits most likely to fall off if a body is moved after skeletonization. The rest of it is conjecture.’
‘Well, experts disagree sometimes,’ said Cooper. ‘Anyway, Professor Robertson seemed to know all the details.’
‘You know what these enthusiasts are like - they develop
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their own theory from selective evidence, and then there’s no hope of convincing them they’re wrong. They carry on riding their hobby horse no matter how many times it’s shot from under them.’
‘Would you describe Freddy Robertson as an enthusiast?’
‘Probably. If only to avoid a slander charge.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, there’s a very fine line here, isn’t there? A fine line between enthusiasm and obsession.’
‘And you think Robertson might have crossed that line?’
Fry shrugged. ‘It isn’t always easy to tell. He might just have been having a joke with us.’
‘A jokeV
‘There’s one other thing I’ve been thinking about, in relation to our caller. It concerns educational qualifications.’
‘You don’t need any to be a crematorium technician. You don’t need GCSEs to carry a coffin or drive a hearse either.’
‘Exactly. But we’re looking for somebody well educated, aren’t we?’
‘Are we?’
‘You heard the tapes. Eros and Thanatos. The life instinct and the death instinct. Even without the Freud references, he talks like an educated man. Someone who needs to show off his education, in fact. I think this is a man who likes to feel superior to everyone else.’
‘So who qualifies, by your definition?’ said Cooper reluctantly. Fry dropped a file on the desk. ‘Melvyn Hudson is a graduate. He studied at Hallam University in Sheffield.’
‘What subject did he take?’
‘Media Studies.’
‘Oh, what? Another thwarted TV presenter? I can’t see him as a chat-show host, somehow.’
‘Nor me.’ Fry looked up. ‘Do they study Sigmund Freud in Media Studies, do you think?’
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‘I’ve no idea, Diane. But the tone of the messages is certainly pretentious enough to fit some of the media students I’ve met.’
‘It’s all part of an elaborate act, isn’t it? The caller is putting on a bit of a show - and we’re his audience.’
‘You could say that. And Hudson is ideally placed to do it, at first glance.’
Fry perched herself on the edge of Gavin Murfin’s desk. It seemed to be one of her favourite places to sit, because she could look down at Cooper in his chair. She was close, without being unreasonably close. She must have known that he found it uncomfortable.
She placed a second file on top of the first. ‘So what about Christopher Lloyd? He has an Open University degree in English Literature.’
‘You’re kidding.’
‘I’m perfectly serious.’
‘People are full of surprises.’
A memory was triggered in Cooper’s mind, a voice quoting Shakespeare to him in a churchyard a few days ago. Oh that this too, too solid flesh would melt. Hamlet, of course. But it hadn’t been Christopher Lloyd doing the quoting.
‘Some of the same things apply to Lloyd,’ he said. ‘I take it he knows the Hudsons.’
‘Certainly. They must have met professionally many times. I wonder if they have any contact socially. Well, that’s one possibility to follow up,’ said Fry. She covered the two files on the desk with a third. ‘And then there’s Barbara Hudson.’
Cooper shook his head. ‘The caller was a man. No doubt about that.’
‘Ben, when Liz Petty demonstrated the voice changer, she proved to my satisfaction, and the DI’s, that the voice could equally be a woman’s.’
‘All right, but it seems unlikely. And Barbara Hudson ‘
‘- has a doctorate in Sociology. The subject of her PhD
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thesis was the study of social influences on styles of moral reasoning.’
‘Really? How do you know that, Diane? Did you ask her?’
‘No, I enquired at her former university in Nottingham.’
‘A PhD?’ said Cooper. ‘So she’s actually Dr Hudson. She doesn’t use the title.’
‘Very few people do. Not in this country. They know that members of the public assume you’re a medical doctor and want to tell you about their chronic piles at every opportunity.’ ‘OK. Any more?’
Cooper didn’t really have to ask. He knew perfectly well there was one more. He could see the last file clutched in Fry’s hand. Without a word, she placed it on the desk with the name face up, so that Cooper could read it for
