‘These are the items stolen from Allerdale House. As you can see, it’s a specific market and we need to pursue all known dealers. The insurance money is substantial. DC Hide and I have interviewed the owner, but I haven’t worked him out yet. He’s a cross between shifty and plain awkward. I didn’t get the immediate impression that he was withholding, and equally I wasn’t sure I would trust him either. My initial summary is that he was a disappointment to his grandfather: the old man didn’t name him as heir straight away, leaving his fortune in trust initially. I’ve got solicitors calling me back to tell me the details of that arrangement. He could have had a grudge. His name is Sebastian Montague-Roland; some of you might remember the name from the colantropine scandal back in 1995. Alan Montague-Roland – Lord Allerdale – exposed an aide of Margaret Thatcher’s, which led to two lords being stripped of their titles, and three MPs and a smattering of CEOs of large pharmaceuticals being sacked. One of those companies was Ravensword.’

‘Where all our victims worked,’ Matt interjected. The room was silent, with everybody paying attention. Kelly was impressed: Matt ran a tight ship.

‘For background,’ she continued, ‘colantropine was an additive in breakfast cereal – it aided the absorption of vitamin D added to the cereal during fortification. It passed all its safety tests, but the problem was that the results of lab tests showing that it burned lesions in rats’ brains were buried under a pile of top-secret documents, only accessible by a few in the know.’

‘I don’t like coincidences.’ Matt stole Kelly’s line.

‘Neither do I,’ she agreed. She chided herself for playing his game and blushed a little. He was as wily as a fox and she needed to concentrate. ‘We need a warrant for the neurocellular lab at Ravensword, and I want to go through the place carefully. We’re looking for anything that might have got George Murphy into trouble.’

Matt took over. ‘Our next lead is the pellet found in George’s skull. Ballistics confirmed it’s a Glock, which narrows it down.’ That got a few laughs. ‘I want all the gun amnesties alerted, major cities on board and known contacts pushed for anyone trying to get rid of a handgun. Long shot, excuse the pun. If they have any sense, they’d have dumped it in the lake up there.’