Grace nodded. ‘It’s another possibility, Jon. But if it’s a revenge attack on Mickey for some past quarrel, I doubt from these photos anyone could mistake his brother, Stuie, for him, and besides, everyone would know Mickey is in prison.’ Thinking hard, he noted down Kids in his Policy Book. But he doubted that was the scenario here.

The dead man’s brother had pleaded guilty to very serious drugs importation charges on a scale rarely encountered in Sussex. His – as yet unproven – associate Terence Gready was currently on trial for his part in those offences of drug importation and distribution. The two men were suspected of running a major county lines distribution network. The masterminds of these networks were brutal people. They would stoop as low as it took, and they were operating in waters teeming with rivals. They could have any number of enemies, all after the same lucrative business. And any of these, knowing the two men were currently out of action, might be behind the break-in. Stuie could simply have been collateral damage. Getting in the way of their search of the house.

Could it be that whoever had done this had gone into the house to look for cash, or drugs, or maybe even Starr’s contacts list, and had been disturbed by Stuie? They’d had a fight with him and then, when they realized he was dead, they did a runner, in panic? He wrote that down too, as a third hypothesis.

‘Is there any CCTV in the area of this house?’ he asked the team.

‘The nearest was on a garage forecourt opposite, but we don’t know yet if it was actually working,’ EJ said. ‘We’ve been running an ANPR check on all vehicles picked up within twenty-four hours prior to the discovery of the body, but so far nothing. We can extend that time frame if necessary. We’ve also carried out a house-to-house, but so far nothing from any of the neighbours.’

‘I see.’ In his mind, Roy Grace intended to make his first priority to look for any evidence that might implicate Terence Gready orchestrating the attack on Stuie Starr. He would have known where to find him.

EJ continued. ‘Apparently the two brothers kept a very low profile. They have one neighbour, an elderly lady, who regularly kept an eye on Stuie whenever Mickey was away. She looked in on him yesterday morning around 9 a.m. before going out for the day. She may well have been the last person to see him alive.’

‘Away for the day, of course she was,’ Grace said, sounding more cynical than he had intended. But throughout his career in homicide investigation, it seemed that a gremlin was constantly at work, ensuring that the one key potential witness was always otherwise engaged at the crucial moment. He smiled, not wanting to give the impression to the team that he was a tired old cynic.