‘It’s been a few years hasn’t it, Sergeant Jenkins?’ said Mitch, still soaking up the dreary view of a station that looked as if it had been carved from a single piece of concrete.

‘It has,’ responded Chandler, knocked off guard by the niceties.

‘The town still seems stuck in time,’ said Mitch. ‘As are the people,’ he continued, nodding towards his motionless entourage but aiming the jibe fair and square at Chandler. A preview of what was to come.

‘We have business to do,’ said Chandler, hoping to get straight back on the front foot.

‘Yes, cleaning up your mess, Sergeant.’

‘We don’t know what it is as yet . . . Inspector.’

‘If you have to drag us all the way in from the coast to deal with it – it’s a mess.’ Mitch looked around again. ‘And where’s the coffee?’

‘We didn’t drag you; you came. I’ll get someone right on the coffee,’ said Chandler, with more than a hint of sarcasm.

‘You do that, Sergeant, and while we’re on it, we didn’t have enough parking space.’

‘I didn’t know you were bringing the whole division,’ said Chandler, pointing to the black suits slowly fanning out around the office like cancerous cells. ‘Plus, if you’re all parked out there, you might start some rumours – spark off some of the social media activity you’re so terrified of.’

‘Don’t worry, Sergeant. The cars are all unmarked. And most are parked on the next street across,’ said Mitch removing his hat and placing it firmly in the middle of the table, as if marking his territory. ‘Besides, by now the first people going past the roadblock on the highway will probably have tweeted about it, so if our suspect has access to the Internet, he’ll know what’s out there. And who’s hunting him.’

‘That might not be a bad thing,’ said Chandler. ‘It might increase the chances of surrender.’

‘Or force him into hiding,’ countered Mitch. ‘Assuming he hasn’t escaped already.’

‘Well, neither suspect possessed a mobile when they came in. Both claim that it was taken off them during the incident so there’s a chance Gabriel might not know.’

‘Might not is not good enough for me, Sergeant. We need answers. We need to locate and apprehend him.’

‘What do you think we’ve been trying to do?’ said Chandler, standing across the desk, not prepared to back down. ‘Most of my officers are out there looking.’

‘All three of them,’ said Mitch with a smile.

‘Yeah, three good officers.’

‘Tanya, Jim and . . . ?’ said Mitch, head cocked to the side, the smile persisting.

‘Luka. Plus our new constable Nick over there,’ said Chandler, looking to the front desk. Nick waved across.