Sure sweets. Working now. Finish at 2, can come after. All OK? Xxx

Shirley hit send and a minute or two later her phone beeped again with a response.

See you then xxx

Shirley, like most people, knew that Kim loved a drama, but she was fascinated to find out what it was that Kim needed to talk to her about. It seemed convoluted, but it certainly piqued Shirley’s interest. She spent the next hour trying to guess the reason for the conversation ahead.

All the windows in the incident room were open and two fans had been set up, but the heat remained oppressive.

Palmer sat at his desk waiting for a forensic report. The SOCOs were convinced they’d discovered the heavy stick that was used to crack Janet Cox’s skull. That, twinned with them having recovered her mobile phone, meant the investigating team were hopeful there might be a development with the case. In the meantime, they had to sit tight and wait. It was frustrating, being stuck inside in the heat, unable to do much. DS Singh had been tasked with tracking down Janet’s iCloud account, but these things were never as quick or as simple as most civilians presumed.

To make matters worse, they had been receiving drunken phone calls from Peggy Cox, wanting to know when they would be releasing her daughter’s body for burial. A number of officers had taken it in turns to try and explain that the pathologist needed more time before releasing the body, but the aging, drunk woman didn’t seem able to retain the information she was being told. Gerald, too, had shown up at the station, wanting to know if the investigation was making strides. Julie, the Family Liaison Officer assigned to his case, was deeply apologetic to the DCI and his team, but it was clear that she had little control over the grieving husband. Every member of the team could feel the pressure building and the temperature outside was doing nothing to abate the situation.

Barrett, who was looking out over the green space of Parker’s Piece opposite the station, was struggling to fill in the gaps. He treated every case like a jigsaw and he felt that some of the pieces were missing in this one. He hoped that before long the tide would change and the police would find themselves on top of the case, because, as much as he wanted to get his superiors off his back, he wanted to get justice for the victims’ families.