‘Yes, sir.’ This was Elly Hale’s first murder investigation and she was keen to be as involved as possible. ‘Sir, if you don’t mind me saying, I think it would be wise for me to lead the interview.’ Her boldness surprised Barrett and Palmer.

‘Good point.’ Barrett rubbed his chin. ‘Do your best.’ He dismissed her with a wave of his hand.

‘I will pay a visit to Janet Cox. We know she had an altercation with the victim the evening of her death. I need to build up a picture of Toni’s movements that night. They are being cagey, some of these women, and I want to get to the bottom of it.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘How’s the examination of her computer coming along?’ Barrett tapped his pen on the table.

‘We are getting there. There are a lot of messages to read through. If anything significant is discovered, you’ll be the first to know.’

Palmer paused in the doorway. ‘Sir, tomorrow is my son’s eighth birthday. It would mean a lot to him if I could be at his party, just for a little while.’

‘When is it?’

‘It starts at four.’ Palmer looked sheepish as Barrett sighed and rubbed his temples. ‘He’s meeting his friends on Jesus Green and they are going to have a kick around and then a picnic. I don’t need to stay for the whole thing.’

‘I can spare you for half an hour, but I need every man, and woman,’ Barrett corrected himself, ‘to have their full attention on this case.’

‘Half an hour would be great, thank you, sir. I’ll make the hours up.’

‘We’ve got our backs to the wall with this one. It’s going to be very difficult to prove that Toni was raped, if she was, and since no one wants to spill the beans on who she was having an affair with, for now, we aren’t any closer to discovering the motive.’ Palmer could see that Barrett had one of his headaches coming on.

‘We made progress tonight, sir.’

‘Not enough,’ Barrett growled.

11

7am 24th June

Having left the station at 1am, Elly Hale appeared looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 7am on Sunday morning.

Barrett was wearing the same clothes and had clearly only slept for a few hours on the sofa in his office. Palmer was running late.

‘Sir,’ Elly said as she handed her boss a cup of hot coffee, ‘it occurred to me last night that the date of the murder might be significant.’

‘Why’s that?’ Barrett blew on his drink.

‘Well, it is the date of the summer solstice. June twenty-first was the longest day this calendar year.’

‘And?’ Barrett was not in a very forgiving mood.