For the next hour, Ridley listened to Hearst share her derogatory opinions of every mutual acquaintance they had, and it turned out she was hilarious. Surrounding drivers, who were becoming more irate with every passing minute, stared daggers at Ridley who was sitting there, windows up, laughing his arse off. It was one of the most enjoyable conversations Ridley had ever had with a woman.

*

Over in Chipping Norton, the squad room was a hive of activity and Jack was right at the heart of it, scribbling furiously on the whiteboards. He noted that the height of Maisie’s burglar was now more likely to be around the 5’10” mark, and that one of the men who broke into Mathew’s house was identified as Mediterranean in looks. Gifford doubted Mathew’s reliability as a witness, but Jack had absolute confidence in him. ‘Mathew has an eye for certain details. In this case, one of the burglars lifted his mask and was described as looking like Oberyn Martell.’

‘I don’t know the name,’ Gifford frowned. ‘Does he have a criminal record?’

‘He’s a character from Game of Thrones, sir,’ Jack explained, ignoring Gifford’s look of incomprehension. ‘Mathew is an expert on the subject. If he says that the man looked like Oberyn Martell, then he did. And we also know that one of the men was heavy-set and wore Adidas NMDs, probably R2s because of their red sole, and that the gang is using a quadbike as well as a motorbike. Sir, the case was always going to get messier before it got neater. But everything will fall into place.’

Jack then turned his attention to Bevan and asked if she’d made any progress with finding the submerged horsebox and the owner of the cufflinks. She was disappointed to say that the cufflinks had been a dead end, with no known burglary victim claiming them. And the submerged horsebox containing their eight-month-old dead body was probably, but not definitely, hired from a small-scale livery stable just outside Aldsworth. She’d come to this latest conclusion because, three years ago, the owner had passed away and his children had sold the property almost immediately. It was now a B&B, with all evidence of its previous working life gone without a trace. It was the only place Bevan could find that could possibly have hired out a horsebox and then lost track of the fact that it had never been returned.

‘Fantastic work, Bevan.’ Jack’s upbeat response was a surprise to her seeing as, to her mind, she’d delivered nothing of value. ‘Loose ends are a distraction. So, thank you for tying those up.’

Gifford’s mobile pinged.