Dors hung up his coat as two other officers came in to sit at their desks. Jane went back to checking through Farook’s criminal record. She noted that he had spent time in Wandsworth prison ten years previously for assault. She put in a call to Wandsworth, not realizing the time: no one was available to assist her until the department opened at 9:30 a.m. Jane wondered if it was also too early to call Julia Summers and decided in the end to wait until she’d had her breakfast. Plus Tyler was not in his office to discuss bringing her in for questioning.

By the time Jane and Spencer had finished eating, the incident room was quiet but the appearance of DI Miller forced everyone to seem as though they were busy writing or typing, and even DC Gary Dors picked up the phone and spoke to a dial tone.

Miller walked to Tyler’s office, knocking and opening the door at the same time. He turned.

‘Guvnor not in yet?’

‘He might be in the canteen,’ Spencer replied, knowing full well that he wasn’t.

Miller pursed his lips and went into the office, closing the door behind him.

‘He shouldn’t be doing that, you know. He behaves as if he’s running the show, and if I was the guv, I’d give him a piece of my mind,’ Spencer said.

He was almost overheard as the office door quickly opened and Miller asked Spencer and Jane to join him. They raised their eyebrows to each other as they trooped in. Miller had opened the file with their reports from the previous night.

‘Well, you two have been busy, haven’t you? Considering the snail’s pace this case has been crawling along at so far, this all seems very interesting. I would suggest, Sergeant Tennison, that you bring in Max Summers’ daughter, Julia, and waste no more time thumbing through stacks of these young girls’ photographs. Let’s put the screws on her.’

Jane chewed her lip. ‘Er . . . DCI Tyler did warn us not to make problems with her father, Max Summers.’

Miller banged the desk with the palm of his hand. ‘This is a fucking murder inquiry. If we upset any big-wig son of a bitch, so be it. I will personally take full responsibility.’

He turned to Spencer. ‘Well, sergeant, you’ve certainly been pulling some rabbits out of the hat, haven’t you? Let’s see what Mr. Farook has to say for himself, shall we?’

Spencer was clenching his fists in frustration. ‘I think it is imperative at this point that we do not tip him off, or that he even thinks we are going after him for dealing drugs. I think we should wait until we have more information about his background, in particular his family. We mustn’t jump the gun.’