'No, sir. This body's been here long enough to turn into bones. That's not to say this couldn't be the same lot as were here in the summer, though of course it was never established for certain they were the same bunch that raided FG.'

Wield was a stickler for accuracy, a natural bent refined paradoxically by years of deception. Concealing you were gay in the police force meant weighing with scrupulous care everything you said or did, and this habit of precise scrutiny had turned him into one of the most reliable colleagues Dalziel had.

But sometimes his nit-picking could get on your wick.

'Just tell us what happened, Wieldy,' sighed the Fat Man long-sufferingly.

'Right, sir. This group – I gather they call themselves ANIMA by the way – the name's known to us but not the personnel – sorry – they entered the grounds with the clear intention of breaking into the labs and releasing any animals they found there. But if they were the same lot who were here in the summer, they must have got a bit of a shock as ALBA's taken some extra precautions since then.'

'Precautions?'

'You'll see, sir,' said Wield not without a certain wellconcealed glee. 'And on their way through the grounds they sort of stumbled across these bones.'

'Couldn't have brought them with them just to get a bit of publicity?' said Dalziel hopefully.

'Doesn't look like it, sir,' said Wield. 'They kicked up such a hullabaloo that the security guards finally took heed and came out. When they realized what was going off, they took the demonstrators inside. Gather there was a bit of trouble then. They got loose and ran riot for a bit before they were brought under control.'

'Violent, eh? So there could be a link with Redcar?'

'Can't really comment, sir. Mr Headingley's up at the house interviewing them. He told me to sort things out down here.'