‘More or less,’ Nadia replied. ‘He took the blow on his upper arm and it broke the bone. It would have caved his skull in if it had hit. Then he ran.’

‘Name?’

‘Mike Andrew.’

‘Seventeen, you said?’

‘That’s right.’

Alice grabbed a pen and paper and made some notes. ‘What did the attacker do after he ran?’

‘They ran, too. He heard a car start up a few seconds later.’

‘Did he see it?’

‘No. He had run up to the canal towpath heading towards Stockton Heath.’ Nadia paused. ‘There is one thing, though.’

‘Which is?’

‘His heard his attacker speak. When they missed, they swore, and he thinks they had an Australian accent.’

‘Male?’

‘He thinks. So it’s possible the killer is an Australian male.’

‘There can’t be too many of them around,’ Alice said.

‘Exactly. Anyway, there’s going to be a press conference at eleven, when we’ll release some of the details I just gave you.’

‘Can I put a story out before?’

‘No,’ Nadia said.

‘Then why are you telling me now?’ Alice said.

‘You can write your story now,’ Nadia replied. ‘And then as soon as we’re done you can release it. You’ll be first. And go heavy on the cowardly attack from behind, ambush, et cetera.’

‘Got it,’ Alice said. ‘See you at eleven.’

Alice put the phone down.

‘Tom,’ she said. ‘Is there any chance you can stay at home this morning?’

He didn’t reply. He was sitting on the couch, examining Jo’s leg.

‘Did you see this?’ he said.

‘See what?’

‘Jo’s leg.’

‘What about her leg?’

‘There’s a bruise on it. She’s got another bruise.’

DI Wynne

Wynne looked up as the door opened. DS Alexander walked into the incident room and leaned on a table. Behind it on the wall was a map of the area, with the locations of the murders marked on it with coloured pins.

The murders, and now the attempted murder.

‘This changes things,’ Wynne said. ‘This guy’s going to be feeling inadequate after botching this killing.’

‘You think it’ll provoke him?’ Nadia said. ‘Make him try again?’

‘I think there’s every possibility.’

Nadia nodded. ‘So it’s a he, now?’

‘Not certain, but yes, it’s a reasonable assumption.’

‘And an Aussie?’

‘I’m not sure about that,’ Wynne said. She had been giving it a lot of thought. ‘What did Mr Andrew say his attacker said, exactly? In fact, talk me through the whole thing, from when he realized someone was under the bridge.’

‘He said he heard a noise – like the scraping of a foot as someone slipped – and then the guy jumped out and tried to hit him with the hammer. He was on edge because of the noise, so he managed to dodge it, at least enough so it only hit his arm. That’s when he heard the attacker speak.’

‘What did they say?’