‘Come with me,’ he said, throwing on his suit jacket.

Natasha McCarthy was still at her desk.

‘Congratulations,’ she said, standing up to shake their hands when Tom and Ray came in. ‘That was some police work.’

‘Thanks. Sorry to be disturbing you. Are you in the middle of something?’

‘Paperwork. Yet another watertight file for the Director of Prosecutions. I really hope this one cops it good. He was raping both his daughters. Since the age of eight.’

‘Jesus. Do you want us to leave you alone?’

‘Shit, no. It’s horrendous. Come in and distract me with something for a few minutes. A bit of serial-killer gossip, that’ll be nice. What can I help you with?’

‘Well, you probably know the score on our guy. He claims he didn’t sexually assault his victims, he was just recreating what was inflicted on him as a child – forced captivity. He’s swears Pauline O’Hara’s death was accidental but that he killed the rest to emulate the feeling of calm he had after her murder.’

‘Okay. Sick puppy. It’s not really my area this, though. Would you not be better talking to Linda?’

‘I spoke to her earlier. Lane fits the serial-killer persona perfectly. A complete split personality and serious mental instability with violent tendencies. Linda reckons he even truly believes that he wanted to stop. But he wouldn’t have, of course. He’d have just kept going, getting more reckless each time. Maybe he did dig up Una to lead us to him, or maybe he just needed to increase the thrill factor.

‘It’s your area of expertise I want now, though. Sexual offences. We discovered in the course of the investigation into Fiona’s disappearance that she was in a number of unhealthy relationships. One of her boyfriends was handy with his fists. The other – well, he’s a guard.’

Natasha frowned.

‘Hmm.’

‘Are you surprised?’

‘That there’s a guard out there with a penis and no sexual moral compass? Can’t say I am. It’s not like he’s the only one. Guards, believe it or not, are members of the human race. There are plenty who abuse their positions for power trips and sexual gratification. The key thing for us is having the resources to weed out those who do and respond appropriately.’

Tom nodded.