The drive from Luttrell village to Crone in Wicklow normally took an hour and a half. They did it in an hour and ten minutes and it still felt like the longest seventy minutes of any of their lives.

‘What makes you think he’d wait for nightfall?’ Ray asked, willing the car to go faster. ‘It’s so remote out here – couldn’t he just have come straight out? And what would he have been doing all that time?’

‘Just driving around, I imagine,’ Tom said. ‘Or maybe he’s parked up somewhere. It’s remote, Ray, but it’s the middle of the school summer holidays and this whole area is frequented by tourists and locals, even the lesser-known lakes. He will have had to bide his time.’

The inspector prayed he was right. Lane deciding to kill Laura at the lake and waiting for dark gave them a slim chance of finding her alive.

The police radio crackled just as they exited the M50 and merged onto the N11: ‘This is dispatch. Patrol unit eleven have just clocked a car driving on the Wicklow Way access road towards Lough Dan woods, coming from the Oldbridge direction. It’s a dark saloon, matching the description of the suspect’s vehicle.’

Tom picked up the radio.

‘Unit eleven, keep it in sight. If it stops, wait close by. Signal us as we approach.

‘How far?’ he asked Willie.

The other man grimaced.

‘Fifteen minutes.’

They sped down the N11, coming off at the village of Roundwood.

It was a clear night; a full moon lit the sky overhead. The houses began to thin out as they drove deeper into the countryside. They were at the foot of the Wicklow Mountains and could feel the ascent. The minutes passed, and soon they saw the woods in the distance, a thicket of trees amongst the vast farmlands that surrounded them.

‘Nearly there,’ Tom said to Ray.

His deputy nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

As they drew closer, a patrol car flashed its lights at them from a side road.

Willie slowed and Tom lowered his window as one of its occupants jumped out and approached.

‘Did the car come up here?’

‘Yes. It’s his vehicle. It’s parked up ahead now. We checked; it’s empty.’

‘Okay. You know the terrain about here?’

‘Yep. The car park is at the foot of the main walking trail. There’s a bit of a climb through the woods, nothing strenuous, then the path dips and leads to the lake. The woods converge to a narrower point at the lake’s shore.’

‘Is it thick woodland? Any clearings?’

‘It’s not too dense. There are plenty of glades and the lake’s periphery is fairly open.’

‘Okay, thanks. Follow us.’

Tom signalled to Willie to drive on until they reached the car park.