‘How about you stop wasting my time and catch the person responsible for this. I did not kill my ex-wife,’ Shane said through gritted teeth.

‘Wife, Mr Matlock. Not ex-wife.’

‘Be as pedantic as you like but you’re wasting your time on me.’ Shane stood up. ‘And unless you want to arrest me, I think this conversation is done.’

‘Thanks for your time.’ Palmer stood in a hurry.

‘We’ll be in touch if we have any more questions,’ Barrett said looking at his fingernails.

‘Find the person who did this.’ Shane turned to face Palmer. ‘Please.’

Chapter 16

9.40am Thursday 19th December

Barrett and Palmer stood in Stansted Airport by customs waiting for Andrew Wade to be delivered to them. The French police had arranged the flight and were escorting him back to hand him over to the British authorities.

Stansted was busy with Christmas holidaymakers departing and arriving ahead of the big day.

It wasn’t a big surprise when the men were told that a lot of the flights were delayed because of the snow. That morning Barrett had watched the news and reports were coming in from across the country about disrupted flights. He’d wondered why the British were always so useless at dealing with the cold weather. It wasn’t as if snow was that uncommon, yet every time it hit the country it seemed to come to a standstill. Schools closed, roads shut and airports found themselves in chaos, and this seemed to happen even if there was only a light sprinkling of the cold stuff.

While they waited for the plane to arrive, Barrett received a call from Bob Roland the pathologist.

‘Ian.’

Barrett immediately stiffened.

‘Bob, any news?’

‘No DNA on the box or the glasses, apart from some belonging to the victim.’

‘Damn it.’

‘I can confirm that there was Rohypnol in Wendy Matlock’s system and that the cause of death was asphyxiation.’

‘Anything else?’

‘We found traces of semen in her vagina.’

‘She was raped?’ Barrett asked in shock.

‘No signs of rape.’

‘So consensual.’ Barrett pondered this.

‘I would say that sexual intercourse took place shortly before her death.’

Palmer watched Barrett’s face with fascination and listened carefully to as much of the conversation as he could gather.

‘I’ve run the DNA we retrieved from the sperm through our system. It hasn’t come up with a match.’

‘I want a swab to be taken from the estranged husband. I don’t think he’s our man but we need to rule him out,’ Barrett said looking at Palmer.

‘Righto.’

‘I have to go. Speak soon.’

Barrett hung up and crossed his arms, tapping his foot impatiently on the ground.

‘Wendy Matlock had sex shortly before her death,’ he finally told, Palmer who had already gathered as much from listening to his boss on the phone.