Lewis drained his glass as he rose to his feet. ‘Do you want another one of those?’

Kesey handed him a ten-pound note taken from her bag. ‘Get me a coffee, white, one sugar. I could do with cheering up. Oh, and a bag of crisps, cheese and onion if they’ve got them, plain if they haven’t.’

Lewis returned to the table with her order a couple of minutes later, still deep in thought. ‘I hear what you’re saying, boss. The soldier’s a shit witness, okay, I get it. The legal system doesn’t allow for weaknesses. But none of that means he didn’t see exactly what he says he saw. His house is no more than a couple of hundred feet away from the crime scene. He’d have had a clear view of the street from his bedroom, however dark it was. The street lamps are on all night, I’ve checked with the council. The man says he saw someone and I believe him. It’s just a matter of who.’

Kesey stirred her coffee, pushing her plain crisps aside unopened. ‘I’m not convinced he didn’t dream or hallucinate the entire thing. Most people would be unconscious after what he’d taken.’

‘I’ve got to disagree with you, Laura. He didn’t make it up, not a chance. I’ve got mates who are ex-services. They’re serious people. I don’t think there’s even the slightest chance he’d have come anywhere near the station if he had any doubts his information was useful.’

‘Yeah, fair point, it can’t have been easy for the man. Not in the physical state he’s in.’

Lewis nodded. ‘Now that I think about it, there was a serial rapist a few years back who cycled to and from his assaults dressed in women’s clothes and a wig. And the MO worked well for the cunt too. Catching him took a lot longer than it otherwise would have. Maybe that explains the soldier’s confusion. Our abductor could be doing the same thing. It would be one way of confusing the evidence. You could well be right. Heath’s statement could mean nothing at all.’

Kesey blew her coffee before sipping it, uncomfortable with his regular use of the c-word, interested in his proposition, but far from persuaded. ‘How’s the house-to-house going, Heath apart, any joy? Our offender went back to the Wellers’ place in broad daylight. Surely someone else must have seen something. Unless he’s the invisible man.’

‘We’ve got nothing else, just like before. Most people were at work. And those that weren’t didn’t see a fucking thing. Or at least nothing that they’re telling me about.’

She sat back and studied him. ‘What is it, Ray? I know you too well by now. There’s something you’re not telling me. I can see it in your face.’

He wiped the beer from his mouth with a shirtsleeve. ‘Oh, it’s probably something and nothing.’

‘Come on, spit it out, tell your Aunty Laura all about it. I don’t bite.’

Lewis grinned, glad she’d lightened the mood. ‘It’s Martin Heath. He lives in number sixty-six on the opposite side of Picton Street to the Wellers’ place. About fifty yards down the street in the opposite direction from the park.’