‘Something wrong, ma’am?’ Joseph stared at her.

For a moment she could only look at him, then she said, ‘I’m not sure. Grab us a drink, if you would. Something’s just occurred to me, and I could do with a hefty shot of caffeine to help me get my head around it.’

As Joseph went to the coffee machine, Nikki carefully removed a large map of Greenborough from the wall, took it into her office and tacked it up where they could see it.

Joseph placed the mugs on the desk then threw her a puzzled glance but remained silent.

Still trying to rearrange her thoughts, Nikki pulled a tin of coloured marker pins from her drawer, and began to stick them in various parts of the map.

‘Think about this, Joseph, and tell me what it says to you. One, the mask factory shuts down. Two, the distributors of the masks are both disposed of. So?’

‘They’ve finished with them. No more use for them. Whatever they set out to do has either been achieved or, for some reason, they’ve given up.’ He paused. ‘And I don’t think it’s the latter.’

‘Nor do I.’ She fixed him with a steely stare. ‘And I’m pretty sure they have done exactly what they planned.’

‘Which was?’

‘You answered your own question as we drove into the car park. Chaos. Organized chaos, you said.’

Joseph stared at her uncomprehendingly.

‘What if …’ Nikki rubbed hard at her temples with her middle fingers and tried to concentrate. ‘What if this whole damn manic scenario is just a smoke screen for something else? Something bigger!’ She began to pace the room, and suddenly felt other things start to slot into place in her mind. ‘Oh my God!’ She stared at the map. ‘Why didn’t I see this before!’

‘What?’ demanded Joseph. ‘What the devil have you seen? And what could be bigger than multiple murders and abduction?’

Nikki grabbed another handful of coloured pins. ‘Where do we believe Lisa Jane met with her killer?’ She stabbed a pin into the map. ‘Somewhere close to this area, right? Now,’ she didn’t wait for an answer, ‘we have the University, here.’ Another pin. ‘Kerry walked off from here, and was accosted on the sea-bank, at this point where her phone was found.’ A red pin. ‘Lisa Jane’s body was left in the barn way out here.’ She jabbed a blue pin into a spot close to the coastline. ‘And all those pins I’d already placed indicate Mickey’s list of where the masks were delivered and the specific places where the boys were told to take them.’ She drew in a deep breath and pointed at the map. ‘Notice anything, Joseph?’

For a moment, he frowned and stared unblinkingly at the pin-spotted map. Then his eyes widened, and his mouth made a silent ‘O’.