Imogen’s brother, Ed, arrived from Somerset as the afternoon ebbed into early evening. He had gone directly to the mortuary to make a formal identification of his nephew, then collected their mother, Grace, from her home on the outskirts of Mansell on his way to Imogen’s house. Maggie had wondered why Grace didn’t make the trip earlier on her own when she lived only two miles away but didn’t question it. Some people were brought closer together by a death in the family, in others it widened the cracks already showing. Only time would tell which camp the Tylers would fall into.

The presence of Ed and Grace allowed Imogen to fully succumb to her grief. With them she didn’t have to pretend to be strong, to try to hold it together, and she cried with abandon in her brother’s arms. Maggie knew it was time for her to withdraw and leave them to mourn alone for a while. She left her number and told Imogen she could call her at any point during the evening, no matter how late. Then she’d be back in the morning.

Driving back to the station Maggie mulled over what Imogen had said about Benji and Poppy not being the friends she thought they were. Before leaving, she’d asked her to elaborate on what she meant and Imogen explained that Poppy knew Benji was a cautious boy who shied away from anything too adventurous so it must’ve been her who persuaded him to climb the wall, and a friend wouldn’t have done that.

‘He’s so timid he wouldn’t try going down the smallest water slide on holiday and he turned down an invitation to a party at a climbing centre because he was scared. It’s my fault – I tend to be overprotective and I should encourage him more to take risks. But that’s also why I know it can’t have been an accident – Benji’s so careful he’d never willingly put himself in danger.’

Maggie had promised she would share what she’d told her with Renshaw and the rest of the team. In the meantime Imogen was going to compile a list of the other friends Benji had made at Rushbrooke, as they would need to talk to them all.

The traffic crawled to a halt as she neared the town centre so Maggie called Umpire on her hands-free. He sounded frazzled.

‘Sorry, I meant to call earlier but I’m swamped. I’ll be working late, so it’s probably not worth you coming over,’ he said.

‘That’s fine. My day’s not been great either.’

She told him about Benji. ‘I’m FLO to his mum now.’

Umpire was blunt in his response.

‘Is that a good idea?’

Maggie’s skin prickled. ‘Meaning?’

‘You know exactly why.’

Usually she liked that he could second-guess her so easily. Now wasn’t one of those times.