Kelly spent more than a few minutes glowing in the pride of the squad she’d built from scratch. Three years ago, the idea of a unit so varied but harmonious was something she’d dreamt of, as she limped back home to Cumbria from the Met, professionally embarrassed and personally damaged. Now, they threw her the odd questioning glance as she prowled around the incident room for the tenth time, looking for something to do. The young woman was in hospital being assessed, Rob was to accompany her to Castlerigg after the initial report by the first responders was collated. Until then, he worked on other cases and she doodled ‘The Teacher’ on her notepad, circling it and stabbing it with her pen, as if she could obliterate her from her life.

There was other stuff to be doing, like shifting her attention to more senior tasks such as cold cases, missing persons, admin, staff management and reviews. She stared at the two words on her pad and considered making everyone another coffee, or going out for cakes.

THE TEACHER

Kelly had to admit that she was tempted to make contact. Her inquisitive brain wanted to question the psychopath. She could learn so much. Thousands of books had been written on the topic: what motivates a murderer? What negates risk and consequence? But to have a bone fide lunatic at one’s bidding was tantalisingly alluring. She knew she’d be able to talk HQ round. It would only take a train ticket to Bagshot. Emma Hide would jump at the chance to accompany her; any of them would.

DS Kate Umshaw walked into Kelly’s office and broke her intense musings. It was a welcome diversion. Kate sat on a swivel chair and gave her an update on the woman who’d been found naked and disorientated at Castlerigg stone circle early this morning.

The Teacher was forgotten for the moment.

It was an odd case. Kelly knew the stone circle well; it was beautiful in the dawn light, or at sunset, covered in snow on a winter solstice. They’d already run through normal procedure for missing persons, though this was, admittedly, slightly different. The ambulance crew reported the woman as initially unresponsive and confused to the point of zero communication. Now the hospital had completed its health assessment and she could be questioned this afternoon.

‘They said good luck. She’s gone mute,’ Kate said. ‘They can’t even get her name out of her.’

‘Age?’ Kelly asked.

‘Not sure, she could be a minor.’

It had been assumed that the woman was an adult, but they couldn’t be entirely sure. It was also unclear if a crime had been committed.

‘She won’t agree to an intimate examination.’

‘So we have no idea if sexual violence has taken place. Or if other parties were involved.’

‘Exactly.’