The Ferris case might not have had the same profile, but it did have similar difficulties. Community pressures, in a part of London where the police were far from popular. It also required cooperation with another specialist unit: the anti-gang team known as Operation Trident. Like Longman’s, the case was unusual enough that in any other circumstances it would be the team’s ‘case of the year’.

And so both had earned Levy’s focused attention. Until the death of Adam Blunt changed everything.

Blunt and Longman had the same murderer. That much was undeniable. A killer who, at his present rate, would secure infamy. A murderer is classified as a serial killer after three individual deaths. Longman’s killer had dispatched his first two within thirty-six hours. It suggested that he would earn the title before the week was out.

This meant that Levy’s full attention was now needed on the Longman/Blunt case. Most of MIT One’s resources and manpower – insufficient as they already were – were similarly directed. But this did not mean that the Ferris case could be ignored. Far from it. Levy had appointed Hale to lead the investigation. To choose his own small team of seasoned investigators and discover just what had happened in Electric Avenue.

Hale turned his attention away from Levy and Ryan. Back to his own debriefing, which was about to begin. The only positive to the new MIT communal space was that it was large enough for several meetings at once, far enough apart that none would interfere with the others. And Hale’s debrief needed that space, as his own six officers had been joined by another ten from Trident. With them was their own Detective Inspector, John Wild, Hale’s co-lead on the Ferris investigation.

Hale leaned his backside against the empty table that faced the mixed teams. Wild had taken a seat behind it, indicating that Hale was holding the floor on this one.

‘As you all know, the autopsies on each of the bodies are complete. As is the scene of crime investigation by my forensic team. The results of both support the working theory of a single killer, starting with Ferris at the door, through to Leach, then Ellis and finally Tennant.’

Hale had already detailed that theory to both his own team and to the officers from Trident. At first there had been protests and disbelief. Familiar with the formidable reputation Ferris had built, the Trident team in particular had shared Levy’s initial scepticism. But with all the evidence from the scene laid out, eventually they had accepted it as the most likely theory.

‘This was no ordinary gang warfare,’ Hale continued. ‘It was too precise, too efficient. Whoever did this was clearly a professional. So, who hired him?’

A murmur went through the group as some of the team shuffled in their seats.

‘Ferris had a lot of competitors.’ Finally an answer. It came from a member of Trident. A young black officer who clearly came from the same streets his team policed. ‘There’s a lot of gangs in and around that part of South London.’