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Jess's phone vibrated in her pocket, she'd put it on silent whilst taking the morning briefing.

‘Hi Jeff,’ she said, stepping into the corridor outside the major incident room.

‘Morning, er just a quick one to inform you we’ve recovered bloodied fingerprints from the half brick used to bludgeon your victim.’

‘They were on the brick before it was used as a lethal weapon. All that tells us is someone else or the killer handled it before, and then probably used gloves at the crime scene. It’s not conclusive either way.’

‘I know it's frustrating but, that's all we've got along with the size eight footprints, hair samples and the victim's blood splatter.’

‘Smooth soled shoes or boots, probably leather judging by the pock marks and impressions those left. That makes them unique, and much harder to trace unless you have a suspect to look at, that is.’

‘Hmm, so we're gonna have to dig deep to try and identify one. Any trace fibres?’

‘No, the concrete floor at the scene was too contaminated by oil spillage and as I said at the scene, the heavy rain that poured through the skylight has washed most of the evidence away, sorry.’

‘No need to apologise it is what it is, thanks Jeff. I’ll keep you posted about the brick. I'm hoping we can narrow down where it may have come from.’

‘I’ve been informed that place was built with good old Staffordshire Red bricks in 1934; heavy-duty clay fired over in Stoke at the turn of the century,’ she said, relaying what Dan Parker had discovered via a website dedicated to old building materials.

‘I don't envy you on that, I’d imagine there are hundreds if not thousands of properties in your area,’ Foxhall said sceptically.

‘Ah, now with Leek being much older than Stoke it may help as the buildings nearby to the engineering works were mostly built in the late eighteen hundreds. A theory I'm clinging to until we prove otherwise,’ Jess said with tepid optimism.

‘Okay, guys, I'm afraid it's bad news on the forensics,’ Jess said relaying the call.

‘Can't believe all we have is an effing brick and anonymous prints to work with,’ Dan Parker moaned.

‘Not quite. Can you contact reclamation yards in the area to see if they can help us narrow down the buildings it could have come off?’

Jess held her hands up. ‘Well, given we don’t have much else it’s gotta be a good place to start. Besides, who carries a brick around with them?’

‘Jack, follow up with social care to see if they’ve identified any males aged between forty and fifty-five on their books. Someone’s got to know the victim. Surely there can't be more than a handful of homeless men fitting those criteria in the area?’

Rose chipped in, ‘It all depends on whether our victim registered with them, it's not compulsory.’

‘You could be right, but I’m not convinced he’s got no ID, as we discussed at the crime scene it's likely the killer stole anything he had from his rucksack.’

‘Exactly, seems to me whoever murdered him is trying to hide his identity. The only reason for that is it points to the killer.’

Jess nodded. ‘Life on the street is harsh. He’s obviously pissed someone off but the way he was murdered and the staged crime scene tells us this was ritualistic. The killer took pleasure in bludgeoning him to death: we’re dealing with a sick individual.’

‘Thing is, rough sleepers must fall out all the time over one thing or another, especially when drugs and alcohol are involved. Surely we need to get samples from as many as we can?’ Dan said.

‘I agree, but that isn’t going to be easy. We need to find them all and get mobile testing done on them, and without evidence that would have to be voluntary. I’ll see if Jeff Foxhall can come over and help us later; Rose and I are going to hit the streets to speak with the homeless community, but first we gotta head over to Stoke for the postmortem results on the victim.’

Jess shot him a look. ‘I’ll take you next time,’ she smirked. ‘OK, we'll reconvene at,’ she glanced at her Fitbit. ‘Half three.’