Jane laughed as Spencer headed towards his desk. There was the sound of high-pitched barking as Toots, the dachshund, hurtled across the incident room to attack Spencer’s trouser leg. At the same time, DCI Tyler opened his door and bellowed, ‘Would somebody get that bloody dog out!’

Spencer picked it up by the scruff of its neck and hurriedly left the incident room in search of the woman who was supposed to be looking after it. Still smiling, Jane made her way to the meeting.

By 7:05 a.m., the boardroom was jammed. Eventually people were standing and a couple were leaning on a window ledge. Rather than the usual hubbub of chit-chat, there seemed to be a feeling of apprehension. Tyler entered, accompanied by a middle-aged clerk carrying a stack of notebooks. DC Dors began passing the notebooks out like a pack of cards to the officers sitting at the table. Tyler removed his jacket and rolled up his shirtsleeves, then gave a concise but comprehensive update on the murder of Charles Foxley.

‘An incident board is being written up with scene of crime photographs and as many details as possible from the forensic department,’ he said finally.

He looked around the room.

‘I suggest some of the photographs be covered up as they’re very graphic. Right now we’re obviously waiting for further details from the postmortem, but it seems unlikely I will have anything until mid-afternoon.’

The room was quiet as Tyler said they had had little result from the house-to-house inquiries but these would be continued, with statements taken from every homeowner and tenant living in proximity to Foxley’s basement flat.

The room was becoming stiflingly hot with so many people, but the officers leaning on the windowsill made no attempt to open the windows.

‘I want you all to understand this is going to be a sensitive case and we’re going to have journalists sniffing around like a pack of dogs. Charles Foxley may not be a well-known name, but he represented some big stars. So tread carefully and be wary of any journalists trying to get information.’

Like everyone else, Jane listened attentively. But as she already knew the facts of the case better than most of the detectives gathered there, her mind wandered as she sized Tyler up.

Jane admired the way he behaved like one of the team but was clearly in command – something that that she had never seen in him before. He also seemed better-looking than she had seen before. Jane was jolted out of her daydreaming when Tyler began to allocate everyone’s duties for the day, emphasizing that it was imperative they find a suspect as quickly as possible.

‘Right, I’ve got fifteen minutes for a Q&A,’ he said finally, and, with perfect timing, the door was opened by one of the ladies from the canteen pushing a trolley filled with coffee, tea and plates of doughnuts.