Lilah was on the tractor, scraping mucky straw from the cows’ sleeping quarters, while the animals milled about in the gathering yard. Strands of police tape had been strung across a section of the yard, with the intention of safeguarding a spot where the previous evening’s searches had found blood on the ground. The forensics team had stayed until almost midnight, with searchlights and photographers. It hadn’t taken them more than an hour or so to find a likely murder weapon in the shape of a three-pronged garden fork, thrown down onto a pile of straw in a different barn from the one containing Sean’s body. They had also found – with considerable good fortune – enough blood outside to identify the site of the actual attack. By the time they left, a scenario had emerged that seemed to fit with their findings. Sean had been attacked with a fork in the gathering yard. This yard was bordered on two sides by the barn in which the body had been found and the milking parlour.
