‘We’ve got the timeframes. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. There might be CCTV somewhere near Turner’s house. Get him coming and going at the relevant times?’

Merchant was already shaking his head.

‘It’s Kirklees District. We might as well just feed this into Rita’s inquiry. They’ll be all over him anyway, once they’ve seen your report.’

Joe was now staring at the ceiling so intently that his neck began to go into cramp.

‘He said we could look at his internet and phone history without a warrant. How about it? We could pick Alex up, shoot over there now, see if there are any gaps in his internet use, his TV streaming, I dunno, anything that…’ He stopped. ‘I mean, if he’s planned it, he must’ve read about Beverage online.’

‘Dicks like that still read real papers.’

‘He had the Yorkshire Post on his table today. But you’d want to know more. You’d do a Google search, wouldn’t you?’ He was already standing up, grabbing his jacket. ‘Come on. Let’s take a punt. I bet Alex’ll find something.’

Merchant drew himself up from his seat with a lot less vigour, despite his relative youth.

‘You’re the boss,’ he said.

Suddenly there was a subtle but perceptible shift in the atmosphere. They both stopped and looked over towards the door to see Andy Mills coming towards them, hands deep in his pockets.

‘Talk of the devil,’ Merchant whispered. ‘On a friggin’ Sunday, an’all.’

It took Joe a second or two. Then he knew.

‘Gents, a word,’ Mills said. ‘Kirklees are taking over the investigation.’

‘Both murders?’ Joe asked.

‘Yep. They’re assuming it’s the same killer.’

Merchant was already turning to leave. ‘I’ll get a coffee. One for you, Sir?’

Mills shook his head.

28

Joe remained at his desk. DCI Andy Mills was leaning on the adjacent one, hands still in his pockets, jangling his keys. He looked down at the floor in front of him. There were three or four other people in the room, all discreetly busying themselves, pretending not to listen: it wasn’t every day you saw an officer being relieved of a double murder.

‘Not much I could do, Joe. It’s turned very serious very quickly.’

They’d trained together, been best man at each other’s wedding, and they’d both come close to tears when Tetley’s stopped brewing Bitter in Leeds. There didn’t really need to be any apologies. Yet.

‘Have you seen the press this is getting?’

‘Doing my best not to,’ Joe said.

‘It’s the Graphite Assassin now. Hash-friggin’-tag. They’re already calling him a bloody serial killer.’

‘Leaked before Beverage was in the morgue.’

‘Aye, that’s as maybe, but Kirklees reckon they can get a result. Who was I to argue?’

‘The implication being that you don’t think I can?’