The old lady sat in the armchair crying. She was holding a cup and saucer in her hand with the dregs of tea in it; the cup rattled against the saucer as she spoke. The uniformed police officer was sat on the settee adjacent to her with his note pad open.

“I didn’t actually see him, not really, but…” said the frail old lady as she put down the cup and saucer on the side table.

“Can you tell me what he looks like? Anything at all Mrs Jones?”

“Lots of people know what he looks like…I just didn’t see him myself. He is very big; massive; big muscles; completely bald and hairless everywhere; has small, mad staring eyes…utterly terrifying.”

The reporting officer made his way back to the police station after ensuring that Mrs Jones's family were aware of what had happened. They were going to come over and take her to their place for a few days. The officer had done various house-to-house enquiries – the same name had been given over and over though no one had actually seen what had happened.

Back at the station the officer spoke with a detective in the CID office:

“So you’ve got this name, but no one has actually seen him?”

“No – no one’s seen him. No one saw him do anything but everybody is convinced that it was him,” replied the officer.

“That’s no good is it? We need some evidence; something solid; something you can hang your coat on…” the detective tutted. “leave it with me – I will do some digging.”

The detective tapped the description into the intelligence computer – one name came up; the same name again. He looked at the photo. That’s him. It can’t be anything else.

I need to stop the story there…

Would we race round and arrest this ‘suspect’? How do we even know he exists? Sure everyone knows his name and is happy to point the finger; the intelligence also appears to suggest he’s the one – but what if the intelligence was wrong? What if everything on the computer and all the people naming him had all got the information and the details from the same place? What then?

I like to know facts. Evidence. Things that are true without any question.

What if Mrs Jones had been attacked by a Tyrannosaurus rex? The description fits. Everyone said the name T-Rex to the officer when he did his house to house. The computer shows that T-Rex existed. But what evidence is there? I mean really?

As a Detective you want things first hand. All the books tell me he did exist. The Natural History museum tells me he did. The internet tells me he did. There are films about him; songs about him.

But…

There is a whole industry built around dinosaurs and their supposed existence – these people have a vested interest in us all thinking that dinosaurs existed. The first dinosaur bone wasn’t even discovered until 1676 and they didn’t even document that find until 1763.

Ahhhh – but the Greeks and Egyptians must have known about the big bones being found and this is what their mythology is based on?

Michelangelo, the great sculptor and painter was born in 1475 – and not once did he think of telling the world of these great beasts whose bones must have been turning up all over the place. Why?

We've known about dinosaurs for 250 years - what or where is the evidence of anyone ever mentioning them before?  Are we that gullible?  Has the 'Dinosaur industry' been having us over for years?  Is it all a fraud?

Case dismissed: Lack of evidence..?