Chandler made his way back through town, noticing, as if for the first time, how barren and dusty a place it was, like a ghost town from some old cowboy movie, the tarmac scorching the soles of his feet and draining his remaining strength. Wilbrook was stuck in a different era, the ornate street lights, the delicate awnings, all built for footfall rather than vehicles. Maybe Mitch was right, maybe they were out of touch. Maybe Sarah and Jasper should be given the opportunity to decide where they wanted to live. Maybe he was restricting their development by forcing them to live here. But – as Mitch had said – that was for the future. There was something more pressing happening at the moment. A case of life and death.

Chandler walked straight back into discussions over what to do with the suspects. Mitch had settled upon Heath as the sole culprit given the new evidence. After making his case he asked for opinions. Not that he wanted them. As was expected, his team nodded their assent. Only Tanya offered a differing opinion, noting that neither suspect had backed down from their story despite the psychological – and physical – pressure.

‘We have the shirt and the axe,’ said Mitch. ‘And the fact that Mr Barwell was brought in trying to steal a car. Probably to flee the area.’

‘Gabriel fled too,’ Chandler noted.

‘He also gave himself up,’ noted Mitch. ‘Twice.’

‘To a degree. But do you want to take that chance—’ He broke off before he could call him ‘Mitch’. If provoked, Mitch might have turned stubborn. What he wanted was to play into Mitch’s fears of getting something disastrously wrong. ‘ – Inspector?’ he concluded.

As it was, Mitch narrowed his eyes, clearly having heard Chandler’s slight hesitation before using his title.

‘We have both, we can charge both,’ continued Chandler.

‘Falsely accusing one man,’ said Mitch.

‘Until we are sure which one is innocent that is something we – and you – have to live with.’ Chandler felt sick. Saying this, even thinking this went against everything that he stood for, depriving an innocent man of his freedom, but he could see no other alternative.

‘So where are we?’ asked Tanya.

‘We charge them both. With murder,’ said Chandler. ‘There’s no way around it. We’ve easily exceeded our window to hold them in custody, even applying generous time-outs for transfers, evidence collection, medical treatment and escape attempts. If we take the piss any further there’s a danger of the whole thing collapsing, or our suspects claiming rights violations.’

There was a pause. All eyes were on Mitch.

Mitch gave a reluctant nod. ‘The lawyers will make things murky,’ he said, not disguising his dissatisfaction. ‘I’d hoped to have this all ironed out before that happened. But we are where we are,’ he continued. ‘We’ll charge them both. Now get to it.’

With that the meeting broke up.