‘This is a dreadful business,’ he said. ‘I’ve worked for the company for nine years and nothing like this has ever happened.’ He spoke perfect English with an American twang to his Belgian accent. He began pacing the carpet as he spoke. ‘We pride ourselves in having stringent security at all our developments. There’s no point me fudging the issue or making excuses. It’s clear there have been a number of serious breaches at the Manor House site.’ Yves signalled to Kirsty to bring them some water. ‘I’ve seen your TV appeal. This is tragic for Mr Ryan and his family, of course, but I’ll be frank with you. I am extremely concerned that any involvement with organised crime could harm Manor House’s reputation.’ He continued to pace. ‘We have a number of back-up cameras, some of which take still photographs. I’ve sent the images from those to your CCTV Control Room.’

‘Thank you,’ I said. I’d suspected that telling them about Kenny Hayes’ background would get things moving. ‘We are here to ask about the site’s entry system and how these men managed to get your barrier to let them in.’

‘Our HR department issues each member of staff with a unique ID card with a barcode. This acts as a swipe-card and lets them on site. Our security system records the details of every card that’s presented at the barrier. In 99.5% of cases, this leads to an individual member of staff. We have a few ID cards which are used for visitors. These are kept in the office at the gate. This was one of them. The men must have got their hands on one.’

‘How?’ I sat forward in my seat and directed my gaze straight at Yves.

He jutted his jaw and looked awkward. ‘I don’t know but I intend to find out. I’ve asked my deputy to find out where all our visitor cards are. As soon as I heard what happened, I deactivated the card-reader and put two guards on the gate, on a twenty-four-hour shift pattern.’

He’d acted promptly but it wasn’t going to be much consolation to Patrick Ryan’s family. ‘There aren’t too many options, surely? One or both men are Manor House staff. One of them has borrowed someone’s ID card. An ID card has been cloned or one has been modified to override your entry-system.’ I studied his body language. ‘Can you think of anything else?’