‘She said a few suitcases, and she added that the men looked “rough”.’

‘Ballsy. Not fazed about the daylight, and a white van isn’t exactly covert. How did they gain access to the property?’

Matt had already asked the same question. ‘No sign of forced entry,’ he confirmed.

‘I wonder what Alexandros was doing in the shed. Has it been searched?’ Kelly scrolled through information on several screens.

‘Yes, and there was a key rack with one empty hook.’

‘The garage?’ she guessed.

‘That’s what I’m thinking.’

‘So, Alexandros panics because he knows that George is dead. Then he goes to the garage and finds Emily and Mike.’

‘He left the door open so they’d be found.’

Another call came through; it was from the general appeal for Alexandros Skarparis.

‘Guv, I’m at a Thai restaurant on Bethnal Green Road. There was a table booked for four under the name of Mike Hudson for Monday night at 7 p.m. They were regulars, but didn’t show. Mr Skarparis turned up late and was surprised to find that his colleagues weren’t there. He waited for about half an hour and then left.’

Kelly turned to Matt. ‘Time of death for Emily and Mike?’

‘Early Monday evening, between 4 and 8 p.m.’

‘Where was Alexandros before that?’

‘He knocked off work at midday.’

Matt called the team at Ravensword and asked them to check the footage for Monday afternoon. Perhaps they could work out where Alexandros had gone.

After twenty minutes, they had a trace on him leaving Ravensword, heading to Bethnal Green. The trail went dead somewhere in Bethnal Green, and they lost him.

‘Let’s check the CCTV for the estate where the garage is.’

Matt contacted yet another team, which was sitting inside the Tower Hamlets council building. So far, they’d found no CCTV camera facing in the direction of the garage, but there was one facing the car park opposite. They had positives on three of the four cars for Monday afternoon. Emily had arrived at 11 a.m., Mike at midday and Alexandros just before 1 p.m. Alexandros left at 3.10, and it was confirmed that Mike and Emily’s vehicles were still there, wheel-locked, and complete with parking warnings.

It was a great result.

‘So, George was renting the garage and he and three colleagues were working on something private. If they had a primate, they must have been testing something.’

‘Let’s find out if Ravensword knew about it.’ Matt grabbed his jacket. Finally they were going out.

Chapter 17