Tom was torn between wanting to spend time with his brother and desperately needing to know how Louisa was feeling, but just as he was about to leave work for the day he had a call from Philippa Stanley. Ahead of the meeting that she and Tom were required to attend the following day, she wanted an update on all of his cases, particularly the Jasmine DuPont investigation.

‘I know I told you to pass it on to someone junior, Tom, but given the fact that you believe at least one other death has strong similarities, it seems some of your instincts may have been correct.’

Tom realised that was probably as close to an apology as he was going to get.

‘Becky – if DI Robinson is the “someone junior” you are referring to – has done an excellent job,’ he said. ‘We’ve identified a case that has some parallels and we’re looking at any commonalities. We’ve failed to find out where Jasmine got the drugs from, though. She had no fixed address, so even if she managed to get access to a computer to buy them online, it’s not clear where she would have had them delivered.’

‘So you think she bought them on the street?’

‘I doubt it. Unless she was stealing to pay for them, and we have no evidence of either that or prostitution, it’s hard to know how she could have afforded them. Some of them are expensive, and PCP – angel dust – isn’t easy to find in the UK. The combination of Jasmine’s low income, her lack of a fixed address and the difficulty of obtaining some of these drugs on the street makes me believe that someone was giving them to her – maybe for their own purposes.’

‘Well, it’s a theory, but it would be useful if we had some idea of what that purpose was.’ There was nothing like stating the obvious, but Tom didn’t have a chance to respond before Philippa continued: ‘It would be particularly helpful if we had a workable theory ahead of the meeting tomorrow. See what you can do.’

Tom felt momentarily frustrated with Philippa. He knew she had to show results, but they couldn’t just pluck an idea out of thin air with no evidence to support it.

‘I need to go,’ she said. ‘I have another team to deal with and they have far bigger problems than you right now, one of which I might be passing your way. But more of that later.’

On that cryptic remark, she hung up.