It was another hour before Maggie was able to excuse herself to make a phone call. Grace had come back downstairs and wanted her to tell them what happened when an inquest was opened, as Benji’s was due to be on Monday morning. So she’d explained the process, making both women aware it would be a brief hearing that would end in an adjournment so the police investigation could continue. They could attend if they wished and she would be more than happy to accompany them. Imogen wanted to know whether any photographs of Benji after he’d died would be shown during the hearing and Maggie was pleased she could reassure her they wouldn’t be, not at this stage.

She went outside to her car to make the phone call, on the pretext of fetching something from it.

Byford didn’t pick up. She left a message saying she needed to speak to him urgently, but didn’t mention the notebooks so he couldn’t use the time before calling her back to invent an excuse as to why he hadn’t handed them in.

She toyed with ringing Umpire to see what he thought, but decided against it, knowing Renshaw wouldn’t thank her for soliciting his advice. So she dialled another familiar number instead.

‘Maggie, how’s it going?’

DI Tony Gant was markedly ebullient for someone so famously grumpy and Maggie felt a pang that she was about to ruin the FLO coordinator’s good mood.

‘I’m fine, but I’m not ringing about me, though. I wanted to talk to you about Jamie Byford.’

‘Is this because he keeps being yanked back to HQ to deal with that case? Sorry, Maggie, there’s nothing I can do about that.’

‘It’s not that. I don’t think he’s cut out for family liaison.’

She didn’t want to wade straight in with her concern about him withholding evidence, knowing the shit storm it would unleash.

To her utter shock, Gant agreed with her.

‘He’s not the most obvious candidate, no. If I had my way this wouldn’t be his first case.’

‘But you’re the coordinator, you must’ve put him forward.’

‘Well, not exactly.’

‘You were told to?’

‘He was suggested to me, yes.’

Maggie’s mind whirled. Gant was scrupulous about making sure he assigned FLOs with the right qualities to each case – why would he let someone else call the shots on an investigation as sensitive as Benji’s?

‘Has Byford even completed the training?’

The pause was all the answer she needed.

‘Look, Maggie, I can’t get into this. Just do your job and don’t worry about Byford. He is a great detective, that’s not up for dispute.’

‘But if he’s not a trained FLO—’

‘Drop it, Maggie, please. This goes way above my head and yours.’

She fell silent, frustration leeching through her every pore.