It was a picture of a scout group outside. Palmer looked at Jack. He was a slip of a boy, blonde, gangly but smiling. The other boys were smiling and looking happy too. On the right of the gang stood Dennis looking proudly at the camera. To his left stood a young woman. She was younger than Dennis but older than the boys. She must have been about eighteen. Palmer pointed her out to Elly without saying a word. It was Wendy. There was no doubt about it. She was younger, but her face hadn’t changed much.

On the other side of the group stood another man, also smiling at the camera. It was Eddie Kilpatrick.

Palmer and Elly looked at each other and put down their half-eaten mince pies.

‘May we borrow this for a while?’ Palmer asked.

‘Why?’ Nina looked uncomfortable.

‘Just for our records,’ Palmer answered quickly. ‘We’d like to make a copy of the picture. I can assure you we will return the original to you shortly.’

‘Well, I suppose so.’ Nina still wasn’t convinced. ‘But you must bring it back. It’s the last picture I have of Jack looking happy.’

Chapter 26

10.40am Monday 24th December

‘Morning, everyone.’ Barrett stood in front of his team. ‘Yesterday evening, Joe spoke to Mr and Mrs Hucknell, the parents of a boy called Jack who committed suicide in 1998. The boy was a member of the scout group that Dennis Wade led. The family have given us this photograph.’ Barrett pointed to a blown-up version of the picture on a large white screen. ‘You can see here that both Wendy Matlock, then Connor, and Eddie Kilpatrick appear in this photograph. We were working on the assumption that the killings were linked somehow to the golf club but now we want our focus to turn to the scout group.

‘It’s been confirmed that Dennis Wade and Eddie Kilpatrick stopped communicating sometime soon after the boy’s suicide. Jack’s parents both have alibis for each murder, which check out, but we are keen to speak to Matthew Hucknell, Jack’s brother. He’s been in and out of psychiatric units for the last twenty years and is more or less estranged from his family, who he blames for his brother’s death. We have his address and officers have visited the premises but there is no sign of Matthew. Our priority now is to find Matthew Hucknell. We will be working closely with Northamptonshire police who have issued a search for the suspect. I want you all to dig into Matthew’s life. Find out what you can and report to me. Clear?’

Mumblings of ‘yes, sir’ travelled around the room as the team dispersed and returned to their desks.

Palmer, who had a strange expression on his face, slowly made his way up to the white board.

‘What is it, Joe?’ Barrett asked examining his colleague’s odd gaze.