Four photographs of cars flashed up above them. Identical models to those owned by the lab colleagues. All of them were what Kelly termed grey leads: bog-standard, dull-coloured makes that were probably among hundreds of thousands of identical vehicles produced in the same year. Skarparis owned a black three-door Vauxhall Corsa. George drove a slightly more notable VW Touran in navy blue, while Emily had a silver Nissan Micra. Mike owned the most interesting set of wheels: he drove a new Seat Tarraco, but it looked like all other showy four-by-fours out there, and was dark grey. Kelly knew that some poor sod would spend the next few weeks trawling through ANPR footage looking for standard-coloured, non-descript cars. They all had to do it when they cut their teeth, but it could be mind-numbingly boring.

‘DI Porter agrees that we’re looking for a group for the murder of George Murphy, due to the scale of the burglary. A double murder is not usually carried out by a single perp, so we’re applying that to the garage too. Speaking to Alexandros Skarparis is of utmost importance, because he ties them all together. It’s perfectly plausible that he’s terrified and in hiding. He hasn’t been to his home address since Monday.’

An officer came into the room and handed Matt a piece of paper. He read it, folded it and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he looked at Kelly.

‘Alexandros Skarparis boarded a flight to his native Cyprus yesterday evening. We’ll have to get the Home Office involved.’

Chapter 15

Tilly was enjoying her drive north, and the comfort of knowing that her bank account was not a source of constant worry for the first time in three years. It was like a weight lifting off her shoulders. She turned the radio up full blast and tapped on the steering wheel, but every few minutes her body reminded her where she was headed to, and why, and her stomach tightened, making her nauseous. She’d set off early, wanting to miss the build-up of traffic around Birmingham.

At Lancaster University, the radio went dead and she couldn’t get any reception – not even a farming channel – so she switched on her Bluetooth. The sky, so dark and grim in the Midlands, shone bright blue, and in the distance she could see the peaks of mountains. Beyond the turning for Kendal, the landscape changed dramatically and she couldn’t help looking to her left every other minute to stare at the dark mountains. They were way in the distance, but she could tell that the scale of them up close would be incredible.