‘Although she refused to give us the names of the clients who were booked in that day, we do have names and contact numbers of the women, and specifically the woman who was paid for by the victim.’ He turned to the officers. ‘She’s known as Big Betty, and she does have a record for soliciting over a number of years. We now have clarification of how much Foxley paid for his so-called treatments.’

He explained that Mandy had kept a meticulous diary with exact appointment times, concerned about one client crossing over with another, in case they were recognized.

‘The last appointment on that day was at half past five when her driver, Farook, collected and dropped off a client, whose name and address we do have; he is a disabled man who requires the chauffeur to carry him to and from the car. He is usually there for an hour and Farook then collects him and delivers him home. In reality, there is a pretty watertight alibi for Miss Pilkington and her driver; however, we’ll need to verify the times with the disabled client to see if he can confirm that he was at the brothel on the Monday.’

Miller turned again to face all the officers and described how he and Spencer had been showed around the brothel by a large hairy man in fishnet tights and a maid’s outfit.

‘As we left, Mr. Gregory Barker gave us his business card in case we needed him to make a statement. He normally works in the city as a solicitor.’ He smirked as he pinned the card onto the board.

Jane slipped into the incident room, hanging her coat over her desk chair and giving a nod of apology to Tyler. He gave her a non-committal glance, but Miller couldn’t resist pointing his ruler.

‘Well, I’m glad we are joined by DS Tennison. So, we know where our victim was up until he left Mandy Pilkington’s. But we do not know where he was that afternoon until three p.m. We have a statement from the dog walker, Eric Newman, who was unable to contact Mr. Foxley at his office but called in at his flat. Although he did not enter the premises, he said that Mr. Foxley appeared to be his usual self and asked him to keep the dogs overnight.’

Miller raised his hands and waved the ruler. ‘We do not know what occurred after that. All we know about is the upstairs neighbor hearing incessant barking from the dog that had been left behind. Not very helpfully, she said “it could have been at five p.m. or even later”.’

He moved along the incident board and pointed to the postmortem details.