‘That’s very interesting,’ Jonah said, not sure how to fit this into everything else. He briefly imagined Louise letting Alex into her home, and Niall arriving back to find them there together. Had Louise been lying about the attack? Or had something else happened on her way home?

‘I’ve also travelled along her most likely route home,’ Hanson went on. ‘If she was attacked, I think it must have been on Asylum Green. It’s bang on the way, it’s the only real green space, and once she was under the trees, she’d be pretty much invisible from the road. Can we get someone out there?’

‘I’ll send Linda’s team,’ Jonah told her. ‘Are you on your way back?’

‘Yes, almost there,’ Hanson confirmed.

‘Good. Pick Ben up and meet Linda at the scene.’

O’Malley leaned in through the door of Jonah’s office. ‘Niall Reakes is on his way in. And I’ve tracked down his movements. He ditched the doctors and came back late on Friday night, from Zurich instead of Geneva. He landed at Gatwick at ten twenty, and could easily have been back here by twelve thirty. Time enough to work out the house was empty and go out and find his wife.’

Jonah gave him a grin. ‘That’s excellent news.’

As O’Malley let himself out, though, Jonah became thoughtful. If Niall had found Alex and Louise in bed together, he might well have killed them. But how did Louise being attacked on the grass fit? Had Alex stumbled on an attack and thwarted it? Or was Louise Reakes, who had proven adept at hiding the truth, still sending them on a merry dance in order to protect her husband?

Even that made little sense, though, Jonah thought. Why would she protect the man who had killed her lover and left her to deal with it? Unless Niall had threatened her. Or unless Louise had been involved from the start.

Hanson decided to park at the magistrates’ court, which was right by Asylum Green. It limited the amount of walking they’d have to do in the freezing wind, even if they did end up standing around in it.

Driving into the car park gave her a strange feeling of déjà vu. It had only been a few hours ago that she’d come here to ask for a custody extension.

She’d been in a very different frame of mind then, her anxiety limited to the tiny flicker of nerves at having to speak in front of the magistrates. There had been no constant panic that was like a siren somewhere in the background. No feeling of everything having gone wrong.