Lab results could take an age to return and provide them with the scraps of critical evidence needed to pass the threshold for charging. The Crime Prosecution Service had to be convinced of a conviction, otherwise it was a waste of time and taxpayers’ money. Kelly had seen the sharp downturn over the last ten years in CPS willingness to approve charges being brought. It was frustrating, but the evidence had to be bombproof. She also knew what happened when the police, convinced of a person’s guilt because of circumstances, fabricated a case and contrived the story. It didn’t take much tampering with witness statements or timings for a person to look guilty. It happened all the time.

But now, thanks to Op Turkey, they’d lost any hope of momentum and looked like bullies. It could possibly weaken their case should they ever put one together.

Next, she watched the CCTV footage of the trouble that had erupted on the Beacon Estate. She hoped she might catch a glimpse of what Will Phillips and Liam Brook had been up to. There were two cameras: one overlooked the road adjacent to Wordsworth Towers, which seemed to be the hub of the activity; the other monitored the play area where the two officers had been cornered. The footage made her shiver. It was every officer’s worst nightmare: getting trapped by an angry mob. Even with enhancing, the images were grainy when enlarged and the crowd appeared as some great heaving mass of black and dark grey. Many of the young men covered their faces with bandannas and their heads with hoods, making it almost impossible to spot indicators that could potentially identify them. Before this, Kelly had been making sense of the main players; now, there were scores of people involved. Instead of helping his friend find answers, Ormond had made it worse.

As suddenly as the mob appeared on screen, it dispersed again, though police could be seen catching several and making arrests. Then the armed-response unit arrived, and as the crowd dispersed, Kelly could see the two officers on the floor. She wondered if Ormond had seen the footage.

She called the hospital, and was told that the two men were stable. The press had been trying to gain access to the ward where they were being treated, but uniforms were guarding the entrances and only those passed by security came and went. A journalist posing as a close family member had been caught only because a bright officer had checked in with a relative he knew was in the family room. It was a close shave.