She tried again. “We’ve got two unsolved cases, one in Warrington and one in Southport, both with similar bruising to their upper arms, hands tied with the same sort of knots. George Marlow was in the vicinity when both . . .”

“Are you telling me Shefford was also in the vicinity? Have you got the evidence to start an internal investigation?”

“I don’t know if Shefford was ever attached to . . .”

He wouldn’t let her finish. “I’m telling you he wasn’t, because I’ve checked!”

“I apologize, but under the circumstances . . .”

“Under the circumstances I am bringing in DCI Hicock! Don’t you know what you’ve done, Jane? You’ve been running around the country trying to rake up dirt on one of the best officers I ever had! It stinks, and I won’t take any more of it.”

“Shefford falsified evidence, and is known to have been on close terms with two murdered girls, both prostitutes—Della Mornay and Jeannie Sharpe. Of the two other cases we have uncovered, one was a prostitute . . .”

Kernan strode to the door. “The man is in the graveyard.”

“So are they, sir. Re-opening cases as far back as nineteen eighty-four is a slow procedure.”

“I’ve nothing more to say, I’m bringing Hicock in as soon as he can get here. You concentrate on the investigation you were assigned to for as long as you remain on it, is that clear? And if you want some advice, put in for a transfer. I want you off the Marlow case, and I want your report on everything that went down yesterday on my desk by lunchtime, is that clear?”

“Yes, sir!” said Tennison.

Amson came racing up the corridor as she left Kernan’s office, waving a sheet of paper.

“We’ve got another one! Blackburn, ’eighty-seven!”

Tennison hurried to meet him and grabbed the paper, but Amson wouldn’t let it go until he’d finished. “It’s about one a year, apart from the time Marlow was in jail! Caplan and Haskons are still watching him, and everyone else is mustered in the Incident Room—apart from these three.”

Tennison looked puzzled, and he finally handed over the note. “Otley coughed up the names of the blokes who were fooling around with the toms! They’re waiting for the Super to call them in now.”

“What about Shefford?” she asked urgently.

“He’s in the clear, on all the new cases. He may have done a surface job on the Jeannie Sharpe murder, but then he wasn’t the DCI on the case, so you can’t put it all down to him. And he wasn’t around when the others were killed.”

“I’m glad,” Tennison said. He gave her a disbelieving look and she protested, “I am! Even if it dropped me right in the shit!”