By the age of five, Jackson was fatherless, but by all accounts the boy was better off without him. By the age of ten, he was motherless. She’d disappeared as a hardened alcoholic and presumed prostitute somewhere on the streets of Glasgow. The missing person case was closed in 2012. Young Jackson lived in various children’s homes during the next five years; Kelly already knew that two of those homes were underwritten by a charity run by the men at the centre of Tombday: Colin Day and Barry Crawley. She also knew that the homes were at the centre of a child abuse scandal, though that was before Jackson would have been there.

The interesting note on Jackson, though, was that he had no criminal record. Despite his past, and a glaring anomaly, Jackson Akers was clean. But then so was Tyrone Fenton.

Was it in return for being informers?

It was odd.

They saw a few curtains twitch as they made their way towards the stairwell. Kelly was only slightly apprehensive, given the events of yesterday and the injuries sustained by the two officers. The attack had been brazen and sent a clear message: the police weren’t welcome on the Beacon Estate. She’d managed to thaw Sharon Bradley and convince her that investigators were different to squad patrols and didn’t charge around like bullies with battering rams.

She pulled her collar up. The sky swirled grey and warned them they were on alien territory. They moved quickly. The stairwell was gloomy; Kelly wondered if concrete somehow actually sucked the life out of humans, damning them to a life of despair. Would it be any different if they were surrounded by fields and open sky, instead of these upright coffins, airtight, depressing and cold?

From the balcony they could view the barricades below. Kelly was impressed. They came to the door of the flat occupied – on paper – by Jackson Akers and knocked, looking around them as they waited. The wind took Kelly’s jacket and it flapped noisily. There was no answer. Kelly knocked again. They both became aware of another figure on the balcony and turned to see Jackson standing at the end. He’d just come up from below and they’d caught him unaware, which was what they wanted; however they now didn’t know if he would walk towards them or run. The two men sized each other up. Rob was a fair build: he worked out and took care of himself. But Jackson was massive.

Kelly looked at Jackson and extended her hand.