‘If I have authorisation from Tony, I don’t think they can refuse. I’ll get on to that first thing tomorrow. On the downside, he was at a meeting with Will Newton in Bradfield Cross on Monday. He stomped out at the end because he was so pissed off. He walked home to work off his bad mood, so he’s not got any kind of alibi for when Bev went missing.’

Paula groaned. She gave Carol a direct look. ‘The “no alibi” isn’t exactly a surprise. He misses the life he had when the MIT was still running. He doesn’t really have much social contact without us.’

Carol knew the true opinion lurking behind Paula’s words but she wasn’t willing to engage with it. ‘See what you can do.’

Paula dipped her head, acknowledging her failure to get Carol to open up with a wry twist of her mouth. ‘You want me to get one of my firm to check the hospital CCTV and the street cameras?’

Carol nodded. ‘You’ll get a better response if you do it officially than I will if I try to get anything out of hospital bureaucrats. Meanwhile we’ll be finding expert witnesses to knock down your fingermark evidence. Because obviously, it’s not Tony’s.’

‘This isn’t enough,’ Stacey said, twirling a strand of her sleek black hair round her finger. ‘Explaining the blood and the thumbprint would probably convince a jury there was reasonable doubt, but it’s not going to hold Fielding back from charging him.’

Paula’s expression was grim. ‘I’ve barely got my feet under the table, but I’d say you’re right. If we’re going to get Tony off the hook before she charges him, we’re going to have to find a stronger suspect.’

Carol leaned forward, hands flat on the table, intense and focused. ‘Tony has a theory based on the way the killer treats his victims.’ She looked at Paula. ‘You know how Fielding has this mad idea that Tony’s killing women who look like me because I walked away? Well, Tony suggested that he’s not killing women because they look like me. It’s that we all – me and the two victims – we all look like the woman he actually wants to kill.’

‘So what’s stopping him killing the woman he really wants to kill?’ Stacey drummed the pads of her fingers softly against the laptop casing, alert and interested now there was some fresh meat on the table.

‘Tony thinks she cheated him out of it. Suicide, accident, whatever. But she might be dead already. And quite recently. He thinks if we can find her, we find the killer.’