“Rashid Wassan’s solicitor’s saying we either charge him or let him go, sir.”

“Release him,” Ridley said. He had no option.

When Jack returned to the squad room, Ridley was standing by the evidence board. He’d added the photos of Marchant and Wassan to the discarded evidence pile, so that only Mike Withey, Barry Cooper and Thomas Kurts remained on the board, in pride of place, staring him dead in the eyes and challenging him to solve a 24-year-old train robbery and a brand new murder.

“Once you eliminate the impossible . . .” Ridley muttered. He sifted through the discarded evidence, picked up the photo of Dolly Rawlins and stuck it next to Mike Withey before completing the quotation. “Whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

He let out a long sigh. He beckoned to Jack. The two men stood side by side, hands in pockets, looking at the women from The Grange. Laura and Anik could hardly believe what they were seeing.

“Can we justify search warrants?” Ridley asked.

“We wouldn’t find anything, sir,” Jack said, with an absolute certainty that made Ridley turn to look at him. “They’re smarter than that. Always have been. They hid in plain sight, then and now. They looked like a bunch of women opening a kids’ home, so that’s all we saw.”

Jack tapped the photo of Dolly Rawlins as he started to speak, and he swept a hand to include all of the other photos as he continued.

“Dolly Rawlins, the grief-stricken wife of a criminal mastermind driven to murder because of marital betrayal. Ester Freeman, a two-bit madam running her own brothel. Connie Stephens, a dumb prostitute. Julia Lawson, a drug-addled ex-doctor who turned to dealing to survive. Gloria Radford, the downtrodden wife of a gunrunning husband. Angela Dunn, nobody of consequence. And Mike Withey, burned-out drunk. Individually, they’re easy to ignore—but together . . .” Ridley and Jack looked at all seven photos, side by side. “Leader, second in command, horsewoman, gun expert, seductress, inside man, and a babysitter to keep Kathleen’s kids out of harm’s way. Ester’s insane decision to shoot Dolly was something no one could have predicted and it was what pushed them into this waiting game. They had to wait for Ester to get out or she’d have grassed them all up. They had to wait for the local pub landlord to stop making cash on the side by traipsing hundreds of tourists through what quickly became a notorious murder scene. And they had to wait for Norma to die. When the coast was finally clear, Mike made the mistake of asking Barry to help burn down Rose Cottage. The only time two blokes were left to do a job, and they fucked it up!”

“Sounds like you admire these women, Jack.”

“I do, sir. They watched us underestimate them back in 1995 and they watched us do it again now. Me, sir. They watched me underestimate them.”

Ridley removed the photos of Dolly Rawlins, Gloria Radford and Mike Withey—leaving Ester, Julia, Connie and Angela.