He updated her on what had come in overnight, and they had a brief argument about him not going to catch up on sleep. The commissioner wanted an update at 9 a.m., and Kelly’s chief constable would sit in.

‘Good news,’ Matt said.

‘What’s that?’

‘We arrested the guy caught on the dash cam driving the Ravensword lorry that killed Miranda Cooper.

‘Confession?’

‘Yup, his prints and DNA were all over the lorry, and he had no alibi.’

‘Randomly thought he’d take her out, or an order?’

‘Came from Dansford.’

‘Shit. His suicide could derail the whole fucking thing.’

‘What about Cyprus?’

‘No leads so far. If that was Dansford too, it could be serving personnel on the military base there.’

Matt agreed but it also meant another battle with red tape: this time, the MoD.

‘Has Dansford’s house been processed?’ Kelly asked.

‘Yup. There was a whole team crawling all over it. They’re still there. The wife has been put up in temporary accommodation. A bereavement officer is with her. We’ll ask the commissioner if we have enough to keep Tooting, Slater and Montague-Roland in custody.’

‘By 9 a.m.?’

‘Knowing Commissioner Pickford, she’ll have been up all night working every possible angle. She won’t let the death of an officer go. It’s a shit thing to say, but it could turn out to be our trump card. There’s too much at stake, and it’s likely the press will have her head if she ignores the web behind it all.’

They made coffee and set up their equipment. There was a perceptible silence and Kelly looked at Matt.

‘Boyfriend?’

‘Yes.’

‘Rugged.’

‘Yup.’

They went back to what they were doing.

At 9 a.m. sharp, the chief constable of Cumbria Constabulary came on line and on screen, along with the commissioner of the Met. Kelly and Matt were ready and sat side by side, prepared to fire what they knew at the pair of senior officers with the power to proceed or limit.

‘Could you convey my condolences to the family of the PC who lost his life?’ The commissioner spoke first, and the chief constable assured her that her thoughts and sympathy would be passed on formally. ‘He leaves how many children?’

‘Two, ma’am.’

‘Carter? Porter? What have we got?’

They started at the beginning. Each knew the facts of the case intimately without once glancing at notes. They spoke in turn, supporting and corroborating one another, for a full hour. Finally they referred to the potential involvement of senior civil servants.