‘Yes, sir, already on it. I should have an update tomorrow.’

‘Excellent. Glenn, any update from your press conference?’

‘Unfortunately no sightings of Eden or useful information from the public to date; it’s drawn a blank, boss. Two crank calls and that’s it.’

Roy Grace looked again at his team. ‘One piece of evidence from Digital Forensics that’s been driving our investigation towards Niall Paternoster so far is the examination of his computer. It’s shown that he’d been searching for ways to commit murder and dispose of human bodies. Norman and Velvet, I need you to ask Aiden Gilbert at Digital Forensics for a log of all the times when Niall Paternoster was supposedly looking at murder and body-disposal methods. Then you need to speak to the taxi owner, Mark Tuckwell – he must have a record of the times that Paternoster was using his taxi.’

‘To see if it could have been Niall Paternoster online at those times, sir?’ Velvet Wilde asked in her rich Belfast accent. ‘If he was out driving the taxi that would indicate maybe his wife was accessing his computer, perhaps?’

‘Exactly,’ Grace said. He hesitated for a moment, before continuing. ‘I’m not saying this is what I believe happened but we need to eliminate that as a possibility – or not.’ He looked around. ‘What I am saying, at this moment, is that I don’t bloody know. Right now we have a woman who has disappeared and her husband having an affair with his wife’s boss. There is evidence her husband murdered her – but we have no body. I also have grounds for suspecting Eden could have set this up.’

Chris Gee raised his arm. Grace nodded at him.

‘I’m wondering if I was Niall Paternoster and innocent, how would I be reacting right now, sir? Would I be taking this calmly or protesting my innocence loudly? Which has he been doing?’ the Crime Scene Manager asked.

‘Good question, Chris,’ Grace responded. ‘From all I’ve seen so far, Niall Paternoster is hard to read.’ He turned to Potting and Exton. ‘You’ve been conducting the interviews – what are your views?’

Jon Exton replied, ‘When we arrested him, boss, his first concern was for their cat.’

Several of the team giggled.

‘Bless!’ EJ Boutwood said. ‘He loves animals, he’s clearly innocent.’

‘Hitler loved animals, too,’ Potting mumbled.

‘For most of the interviews we conducted he alternated between being belligerent and going “no comment”,’ Exton said. ‘I found him hard to read.’ He looked at Potting.

‘Same here, chief.’

‘OK,’ Grace said. ‘We need to talk to this Rebecca Watkins urgently. Have we found any more about her?’ He looked at DS Stratford.

‘Yes, I’ve been doing a search on her family, sir.’ He leaned over his shoulder and pointed at the association chart on one of the whiteboards behind him. ‘Her husband, Ned, runs a successful advertising agency based in Brighton. They’ve been married five years, no children.’

Grace thanked him, then looked at Polly. ‘I’m very curious about this lady, I’d like to meet her myself. I think we’ll pay her a visit straight after this briefing – then you and I can bring her in for a formal interview.’