‘Well, sir, the way Foxley handled these losses was by ploughing a lot of his commission from his clients back into the company to keep it afloat. So he was very adept at moving money.’

Walker nodded. ‘What do we know about these Summers fellows?’

Spencer pulled at his tie again. ‘Their parents were originally from Prague but the brothers were brought up in New York. One is a major property developer and helped finance the other’s independent film company.’

Walker nodded and gestured for Spencer to sit down. ‘We should investigate both of them.’

Two more officers detailed the results of their interviews with various actors represented by Foxley, but none of them had said anything negative about him.

Finally it was Jane’s turn. She went into some detail about her work on Charles Foxley’s financial records, and the contents of his desk diary from his office and his personal notebook. She also repeated that she had been unable to reconcile as much as £30,000 of his cash withdrawals and her suspicion was that he may have been being blackmailed, but they had not yet organized another interview with Mandy Pilkington. They had also not identified anyone who could be his drug dealer and nobody had confirmed that Foxley was actually a drug user. But Jane felt it was imperative that they continue that line of inquiry.

Jane was closing her notebook when Spencer nudged her. She looked up and DCS Walker pointed at her.

‘From what you’ve just said, Tennison, you think that our victim was potentially being blackmailed. Do you think that it could possibly be drug-related? Have you any other thoughts?’

Jane cleared her throat. ‘It could be drug-related, or it could be that he was being blackmailed because of his visits to Mandy Pilkington.’

Walker nodded. ‘I don’t really buy that. If he’s paying through the nose to a dominatrix, why would she kill the golden goose? Ditto your drug dealer.’ He slowly stood up. ‘You’ve all been very diligent, but not one of you has brought to the table a possible motive that I can support. That said, we will be interviewing Mandy Pilkington, and DI Miller will be leading on that. I think there’s a consensus that his ex-wife, Justine Harris, may have been involved – possibly with at least one other person. But at this point we don’t have enough evidence to arrest her.

‘I now suggest we bring in George Henson, because I think we need to go back to square one. That’s it, everyone. Thank you for your attendance.’

There was an air of gloom as Tyler and Walker left.

Jane overheard one of the officers talking quietly to another. ‘I say Walker is going to pull half the team off, and replace Tyler . . . ’

*