She rang off and entered the building. She couldn’t get ahead of herself and assume that the victim of a new murder case had anything to do with Mary Hales, so she took a deep breath and decided to stop at the coffee machine downstairs before she did anything else. After a sip of strong espresso, she felt more human. But the fact that Carry Tomlin had been investigating local Pagans wouldn’t go away. Her mind whirred with information and she hoped that Demi would provide some sanity and clarification for her. She caught the lift and entered the incident room, going to Demi to greet her. The two women hugged. Demi looked older than Kelly remembered and she guessed it must be six or seven years since they’d seen one another. She’d always admired her dress sense, and Demi pulled off bright colours where anybody else would have failed. She teamed all hues of the rainbow with scarves and jewellery, and gave the impression of an eccentric art teacher. Her eyes hadn’t changed: they were still those of a hawk, intent on the hunt. Her smile was warm and they lingered a moment on the exchange.

‘It’s good to see you, Kelly Porter. You haven’t aged a day. No husband and children to look after, I think?’

Somebody in the team coughed. Kelly wasn’t surprised, it was Demi Cramer’s bluntness that got her theses published and taken seriously.

‘Everybody, this is Dr Cramer, a leading expert on psychotic lunatics.’

‘What an introduction! But I admit it’s true.’ She went around the room and shook hands with the crime team one by one. As she did so, Kelly told her a little about each of them. She spoke proudly and Demi looked interested.

‘Deep breaths everyone. Some new information has come to light and Dr Cramer is going to sit in on our brief. I’ve just come back from Fred O’Reilly’s house and he’s given the forensic artist a great description of this man.’ Everybody sat down and paid attention, as Kelly wrote the name Kirk Junker on the whiteboard. At the moment, the board wasn’t full. Leads were crossed off as they were checked and they had few left. Kelly rearranged some photos and a map, and Kirk Junker’s name went in the middle. She brought up a photo of the artist’s impression so far.

‘Rob?’ As instructed, Rob gave the team everything he had on the enigmatic character, including a possible motive to murder Mary Hales. It wasn’t much.

‘We still haven’t located anyone matching the description or name. The boss has agreed that only an appeal to the public might give us a chance.’ Demi watched and waited. Rob looked at Kelly, who nodded.