“We need a game plan here. We’re going to lose the light in two hours. Do you think now is really the time to go on a treasure hunt?” Sally said, as he looked behind him. James Sunderland was standing in the entrance to the Community Centre, watching them. “We need to regroup. Really think about this.”

“Think about this?” Robin said, holding up the paper. “I think it’s pretty bloody obvious, don’t you? It shows where the hole is. This is it—what we need to get the police to see reason—if the hole really exists then this is it. A real tangible way that this could have happened.”

“In the morning at first light, we will...”

“No—we go now,” Robin said.

Sally stepped back, some kind of disgust on her face. “No, we don’t.”

Robin shrugged. “Fine, then see you around, Sally.” He started walking again, even if it was just for effect. He knew the conversation was nowhere near over.

“Robin.”

He wheeled around. “We’re not a team, okay. We’re not a detective duo or something. I was doing fine before you came along.”

Sally scoffed. “You were halfway toward getting yourself run out of town. And let’s not forget this was my lead. I brought you here. That paper is mine.”

“This isn’t about whose lead it is, Sally. There is a young man sitting in prison right now, and maybe he shouldn’t be in there. And maybe we can do something about it. And maybe, just maybe, we can do something about it right now. Not at first light, now.”

Sally slowly walked toward him, until they were close, almost intimately so. “Why are you doing this, Robin? What’s your prime motivation? Is it Matthew McConnell’s well-being? Or is it just about the information in his head?”

Robin held her gaze for as long as possible, before looking away.

“I thought so,” Sally said. “Maybe you should save the lectures about a moral compass for when you get one.”

Robin sighed, and tried to formulate a sentence. It was a while before he did, and even then it was only two words. “I’m going.”

Sally nodded. “If it comes to finding one—if it comes to finding out what happened to the Standedge Five, and what happened to Samantha Ferringham—I don’t really know you, Robin. You seem like a good enough man—meat and potatoes. You say what you see, think the world is black-and-white just enough to think you’re on the right side. Your paths are aligned at the moment, but you have to start considering the very real possibility that at some point they are going to diverge. And then you’re going to have to start asking yourself some very hard questions.”