‘I agree.’ Dan was jabbing his finger at the image of Rosa’s son-inlaw. ‘And people hijack group names and identities all the time, so someone could be organising criminal activities and using LfA as a shield and Olaf Strozyk as a fall guy. Once we’ve received confirmation that he let the website lapse, we can rule him out, I think.’

‘What about Artem?’ I asked. ‘We know he has form for arson.’ I put my mug down. ‘There’s a difference between setting fire to a tumble-down shed at the bottom of someone’s garden and burning down a three-storey shop though, and it was ten years ago. Is that enough to make him a suspect for setting light to the soup shop?’

‘It was still arson.’ Dan’s tone was unequivocal.

I faced the team. ‘I think we have to consider him a possible suspect but not our prime one. I don’t see him as a pyromaniac and he’s not stupid enough to risk his livelihood.’ The female fire victim was bothering me. ‘I’m pleased the public has taken our appeal for information to heart. Any news on our UnSub?’

‘No,’ Alexej replied. ‘Not good news about Sophie Williams, unfortunately, either. We haven’t traced her mother yet so we can’t rule her out as our UnSub. I’ve spoken to the lab. The UnSub’s dental records don’t match with any on the database, and because her body was so badly burned, they’re still having trouble extracting enough DNA strands.’ He stopped. ‘On the positive side, they’ve got her corpse now so they’re continuing to take samples and test.’

It was what Dr Clark had warned about.

‘We need to speak to Indra again,’ Dan said. ‘If she knows who one of the women was that her husband was having sex with – as the shop-keeper told us – this woman could be our UnSub. Do we know when the doctors will let us speak to her?’

Alexej looked up from his email. ‘As soon as they’ve got her bleeding under control.’

‘I feel sorry for Indra,’ I said. ‘She’s having a dreadful time.’

‘There has to be a number of people queuing up to take a swipe at Simas, surely?’ Shen curled a disapproving look. ‘Including Indra. I can’t say I’d blame her either. Although a quick chat and a good kicking would have been less drastic.’ She paused, as though she was re-thinking her comment, and was beginning to realise how difficult it was to navigete the complexities and darkness of CID.

‘I didn’t have you down as violent.’ Dan nudged Shen, his tone playful.

‘I’m not.’ She eyeballed him. ‘Unless provoked by a stupid man who can’t keep his dick in his pants.’

Alexej laughed. ‘Let’s hope no-one cheats on you then.’

We were all relieved to release some tension.