She stood alongside Jane. ‘Good evening. My name is Max. I’m from St Mary’s and I’ll be your neutral third-party evidence for the evening.’ She grinned at them.

Commander Hay turned. ‘Thank you, everyone. Major Callen, Trainee Anders and Officer North will remain. Everyone else is dismissed.’

Callen turned to her, saying in an urgent undertone, ‘Commander?’

She held his gaze. ‘I think it’s wise not to wash our dirty laundry in public, don’t you?’

‘I don’t understand your meaning, Commander.’

‘Then you have nothing to fear, do you?’

Everyone remained very still until the last footsteps died away and the doors closed. Silence fell.

‘Who else is in the pod, Dr Maxwell?’

‘Major Ellis.’

North lifted her head. ‘You brought the body back?’

Max was watching her. ‘No, he’s alive. There’s a bullet in his shoulder that needs to come out, but he’s alive.’ She noted North’s expression with some satisfaction. ‘He’s pretty pissed off, of course.’

‘Does he know who shot him?’

She shook her head. ‘The shot came out of the dark.’

‘Do you know who shot him?’

‘No.’

Callen interrupted. ‘It’s as I said, Commander. It’s simply a case of one word against another. Except that one party is an exemplary officer and the other is already wanted for murder and a whole string of other crimes. It’s hardly rocket science, is it?’

‘On the face of it, Major, I agree. Except that it’s so very hard to believe that Lockland here is the vicious thug everyone believes her to be.’

‘Appearances can be deceptive, Commander.’

‘You were deceived enough to offer her a job in your own team.’

He stiffened. ‘I thought she had something, but obviously I was mistaken. Poor judgement on my part, Commander, I freely admit.’

Commander Hay was turning away. ‘You’re right. We have conflicting testimony and no way of discovering the truth for ourselves. Charlie, call up a detention team, will you? Tell them to bring a truth cuff. That should ensure we get to the bottom of this.’

Major Callen was outraged. ‘Commander, I cannot advocate using the cuff on our own people. It’s never been done before.’

‘And this is why I had the Pod Bay cleared. We need to get to the truth of this matter. The whole truth. And the only way to do that is to use the cuff. Sadly, we’ve run out of witnesses.’

Back in the pod, Ellis looked at Grint and Grint looked at Ellis.

‘I’m sorry, Gordon.’

Grint nodded. ‘So am I.’

He opened the door and stepped out.

Luke watched the door close behind him. ‘Tosser.’