‘Where are we with interviewing the other women from the book club?’ Barrett walked up to the white board and wrote the name Grant Grubb in large black capitals, before circling it three times.

‘It has come to light,’ he said, turning to address the room, ‘that Mr Grubb, who is the husband of Shirley, a regular at the book club, was the man who had an affair with Toni Jones, which resulted in the break-up of her first marriage. We need to speak to Grant as a matter of urgency. Elly,’ he pointed at her, ‘I want you to bring him in.’ Elly nodded enthusiastically and left the room with her instructions. ‘Right, people, we now have two victims with similar wounds who had links to one another. This is no longer a single murder investigation.’

Palmer, who had always been expecting another body to show up, refrained from looking pleased with himself. Being right wasn’t always that rewarding.

‘We need to inform the next of kin. Palmer and I will visit the victim’s home, along with SOCOs. So far, we know that Janet Cox lived with her teenage son in a flat on Milton Road. She worked in the bookmakers below the flat. We interview the son, her colleagues, people who might have seen her yesterday. You,’ Barrett pointed to a slightly overweight sergeant, ‘get on to the CCTV. See if we can work out where she went into the river. My guess is that it wasn’t where we found her.’ The chubby man nodded and spun round to face his computer.

‘What about the press, sir?’ Palmer knew it was a concern and that they would interfere with the investigation.

‘Until we’ve spoken to the son,’ Barrett looked at his notes, ‘Dean Cox, we keep a lid on it. Nothing leaves this room. Understand?’ Everyone gave exaggerated nods. ‘To work,’ the DCI barked, jolting his team into action.

‘Sir,’ Palmer spoke quietly, ‘what about the wife, Shirley?’

‘Her feelings are not my concern at this moment. Let’s speak to Grubb and see what he has to say. His wife was at the book club on the night of Toni’s murder, so we should talk to her too.’

‘Grant has a window cleaning company. I’ll call him and tell him to come down to the station.’ Palmer approached one of the empty desks and picked up the phone.’

‘Tell him we want to speak to him now. Call Elly back. She can go with you to speak to the son.’ Palmer grimaced and put down the phone; he hated that part of the job.

‘I’ll call Grubb.’ Barrett put out his hand, waiting for the piece of paper that had the number written on it, which Palmer reluctantly handed over before removing his jacket from the back of a chair and heading downstairs to catch Elly before she left the station.