‘Fair enough,’ was all he actually said, then left the office.

Tom bounded down the steps to the incident room, threw open the door and strode up to the front.

‘Listen up!’ he called out over the usual daily clamour. ‘Folks, put down whatever you’re doing. This is important.’ Guards hurriedly ended phone calls and raised their eyes from their laptops. His own team hovered nervously and expectantly by their desks.

Tom waited until there was absolute silence.

‘One of our own appears to have gone missing. DS Laura Brennan.’ He paused to let it sink in. ‘Now. This may yet turn out to be something trivial, but we all know Laura and we know how seriously she takes her job. So as of right now, I’m making determining her whereabouts a priority. We believe she uncovered what may have been vital information pertaining to this case and was pursuing it – so her disappearance may be related. I don’t have to spell out for you what that means. DS Michael Geoghegan will be coordinating our efforts. DS Lennon and I will try to establish what exactly Laura had stumbled on.’

Every head in the room nodded. Laura was a popular and well-regarded workmate. Not a man or woman there would rest until she was found. They didn’t need to be convinced.

The inspector joined Ray at Laura’s desk. He’d retrieved the last file she’d been viewing, the list of Holland employees, and displayed it on the screen.

‘So, did she glean something from this list, or did somebody mention something to her in passing that jogged her memory?’ Tom said, staring at the names.

Ray shrugged heavily. ‘I rang downstairs. No calls were put through to her on her landline yesterday. She may have taken a call about something significant on her mobile. Nobody in here spoke to her about anything other than this list before she left, and that was just regarding background checks. The same information that’s on this screen.’

Tom pulled over an extra chair and they began to study the names.

They paused at the employee who’d been accused of rape, a name she’d highlighted in bold. It took thirty minutes for them to establish what Laura had yesterday – that the accusation had been for statutory rape and the charges were dropped. Laura hadn’t had a chance to write up her notes on what she’d found. They discussed for a few minutes whether she’d gone out to see the man anyway.

‘But even if she had – that man is hardly a danger,’ Tom concluded. ‘We’ll send a car out, but no. I think it was something else.’

He rubbed his eyes and leaned back from the desk.

‘I’m just going to try Sean again,’ he said. ‘He’ll want to know about this.’

Once more the phone rang out. Christ, where was the man? He tried Louise.

‘Hi, love,’ she answered.