Maggie could barely concentrate on what Umpire was saying. She was livid beyond words. Not only had he not bothered to warn her that he and a team from HMET were being brought in by the Chief Constable to investigate the murder and prostitution ring, but he’d made her look an idiot in front of her colleagues for not knowing. They were in a relationship and yet she hadn’t warranted so much as a text in advance.

She stared resolutely ahead, determined not to make eye contact.

‘What we know about our victim so far,’ he was saying, ‘is that her name is Violet Castle but she was known to friends as Ruby because of her hair colour. She’s eighteen and spent most of her adolescence in foster care. She’s not a Mansell native, but moved here from Wales with her mum as an infant. Her last known address is a bedsit on Creighton Avenue. Abram, I want you round there this morning talking to neighbours. We need names of known associates, colleagues.’

‘Sure, boss,’ said Belmar, prompting Maggie to be inexplicably angry with him too. Why hadn’t he let her know either? They were meant to be mates.

Actually, they were closer than that now – Belmar was one of her best friends. When they’d first met she’d thought he was faintly ridiculous – he strutted about the place in three-piece suits and pointy shoes like a GQ model, and still did – but he was kind and gracious and funny and, with his wife, Allie, to whom she was also close, had been incredibly supportive since her fall-out with Lou, filling up her social calendar with nights out to take her mind off it. In return, she was their hand-holder as they dealt with the stress of failing to get pregnant.

Belmar was in the front row, next to Nathan and another detective Maggie didn’t know. She was in the middle row with Burton on her right and Joseph on her left. She didn’t know any of the officers in the back row. They’d been upgraded to Incident Room 1, the biggest and plushest the nick had to offer.

‘Establishing Ruby’s last movements is our priority,’ said Umpire. ‘We understand she was a regular at the Marshall Smith drop-in centre for adolescent drug users and addicts. Ruby used the centre a couple of times a week until about a month ago. Apparently there’s been chatter amongst the regulars this week that she’d not been seen in her usual haunts and that her friends didn’t know where she was.’

‘They weren’t concerned enough to report her missing though,’ Belmar commented.

‘It wasn’t entirely out of character for Ruby to duck in and out of the area,’ said Umpire. ‘She had friends in London she would sometimes crash with for weeks at a time.’

Maggie raised her hand to ask a question.