‘After she got him off her – he didn’t leave. He locked the front door and said she was staying there with him until she agreed to have sex with him. It was only when her housemate came back with her boyfriend that he did a runner. The girl was terrified. He kept her locked up for two hours.’

‘That is interesting,’ the inspector mused. ‘So, he has form for holding women captive. But it sounds like it was all a bit slipshod, Ray. Our victims were spirited away and kept alive, possibly for months, not locked up in their own homes for a couple of hours. And, also, according to Moya’s evidence, it doesn’t look like the victims were raped. Which you’d have to imagine would be Carney’s motive for taking anybody.’

Ray shrugged. Was it possible that Carney was pulling the wool over everybody’s eyes?

‘Unless he drugged the Glendalough victims to rape them,’ he said. ‘I don’t know. I’m too tired to think.’

‘Look, head home,’ Tom said. ‘I’m going to tidy up a few loose ends and plan tomorrow.’

‘You sure?’

‘Absolutely. I’m leaving myself shortly.’

Ray practically skipped off. Tom watched him go. At least somebody was full of the joys. He felt like he’d the weight of the world on his shoulders – not least because Joe Kennedy was going to be absolutely thrilled that they’d nothing on Healy.

It was disgusting; the chief would prefer a serial killer was still at large than have the suspect be a member of the police force.

Ray opened the incident room door and ducked his head in. There was no sign of Laura. He crossed to her desk – she’d left nothing there, no indication she was off in the toilet and would be back soon. Her computer was in sleep mode and her bag and cardigan were gone.

‘Hey,’ he called to Brian Cullinane. ‘Have you seen Laura this evening?’

Brian shook his head.

‘Not since this morning.’

‘Oh. Never mind. I’ll ring her.’

Ray dialled her number. He was hoping she’d also finished for the day and would say yes to a proper dinner, as opposed to a quick takeaway.

That was odd. Her phone was switched off. He tried a couple more times, then dialled Michael.

‘Ray, what’s the story?’

‘You were working with Laura today, weren’t you?’ Ray asked.

‘Yeah. Earlier.’

‘Do you know when she finished up?’

‘No. I was out for a while and she was gone when I got back.’

‘I see. Okay, then.’

‘Is everything alright?’

‘Yeah. We were just going to … It doesn’t matter. She must have changed her mind.’

He ended the call and placed his hand on the back of Laura’s chair, removing a long curly hair from the fabric.