I was taking stock. ‘Well done, everyone. I’m fully confident that we can find out who meant to target the newsagent’s but hit the soup shop instead.’ I paused. ‘Right. Our priorities are still to identify our UnSub; to investigate the people we’ve identified as having a potential motive; to follow up those with information; and to find Ali.’

I heard a muttered grumble but couldn’t place whose it was.

‘Alexej, can you chase Alchemia for their CCTV and continue calling in footage from the alley? And interview Solomon Stein about Rosa Feldman’s lease.’ I felt my shoulders relax, knowing we’d made a start. ‘And keep chasing the lab for DNA results on the woman. If they can’t narrow results to an individual, family details are better than the nothing we’ve had for the last three days.’

He gave a thumbs-up.

‘Shen, can you check with Indra about their religion, please, and whether they put the Star of David up outside their shop? And chase the analysts on the MisPer register and Simas’ mistress in Essex with a kid. Without any other leads, she has to be our prime UnSub candidate.’

‘Sure thing, Boss.’

‘Dan, can you interview Agnieszka and Olaf, and Tomasz?’ I felt uneasy at the prospect of Rosa’s children wanting to take advantage of her, but Olaf wasn’t a blood relation. ‘I’ll pay Artem another visit, then brief Rosa on safety.’ I recalled how frail she’d looked when she left hospital; how we’d nearly lost her after the arson; how crushed she seemed without Józef. There were various strands to the conversation I needed to have with her, and I wasn’t looking forward to bringing her more bad news.

However, there was a more immediate matter. What was I going to tell the press about the new development?

And before that, I had to front up to Jackie.

Maya, 11 a.m.

Maya, 11 a.m.

‘Let’s start with reckless, dangerous and against procedures, shall we?’

I looked up from my keyboard. Jackie was standing by my desk wearing her no-nonsense face. I wasn’t going to get away with fobbing her off again. ‘Sorry, Jackie. I didn’t mean to be rude earlier. I was—’

She fixed her steely gaze on mine. ‘What the hell were you and Dan doing, entering the squat without adequate protection?’ Her voice was getting louder. ‘You know the correct procedure is to wait for back-up and wear a stab vest. You also know that preservation of life is paramount, and you have a duty not to put yourself in danger. Don’t you?’

She was right. ‘I’m not going to argue with you.’

‘Are you sure about that?’