Tom was back in his office, the Sunday papers spread out in front of him. Kennedy had kindly sent them down, a reminder of what they were up against.

‘This lot are already speculating about the victims and revisiting all their cold case articles. They’ll be hounding the relatives.’

‘Some of the families will be happy with that,’ Ray observed. ‘This one here is about a woman who vanished fifteen years ago. The family is probably glad to see her name in the papers again. It gets the public re-engaged in her case.’

‘Sure,’ the inspector agreed. ‘They’ll all want their loved ones mentioned in the hope it jogs somebody’s memory or inspires a missing woman to return. But they won’t want any of the victims to be their daughter or sister or wife. They’ll become hysterical if the uncertainty around the victims’ IDs persists. We’ll have to send out a memo to stations around the country that we’re focusing on particular cases, so they have something to tell the families who approach them. We’ll keep working closely with the Missing Persons Bureau as well. They’ll be inundated.’

‘Yeah. How are you splitting up the team?’

Ray’s tone was casual and he didn’t look up from the paper he was scanning. The inspector wasn’t fooled. His deputy was praying Tom would send him off to do interviews with Laura.

The dynamics of his team had changed utterly.

For years, Laura had been carrying a torch for Ray, of which he, in his usual oblivious way, had been entirely ignorant. But then he’d started spending more time with the younger detective. When she eventually took up with another bloke, Ray finally sat up and noticed her.

Laura had since dumped the boyfriend and the inspector had assumed that she and Ray would get it together. But Laura was playing it cool. Either she’d gone off Tom’s deputy, or she was making him work for it.

The inspector had consulted his all-seeing, all-knowing wife for her opinion.

‘She’s probably just nervous,’ Louise had stated, decisively.

‘Nervous? Why would she be nervous? It’s obvious that Ray is smitten with her. Jesus, Louise, even I can see that and you know my vision is 2D when it comes to affairs of the heart.’

‘It mightn’t be obvious to her,’ his wife snorted. ‘And even if it is, she was badly burned by him when he went after that poor girl Ellie Byrne that time, wasn’t she? Laura’s got no self-esteem issues. If he wants her, he’ll wait until she’s ready.’

Tom wasn’t unmoved by Ray’s plight. But he was the boss; he had no intention of being his deputy’s wingman, or putting Laura in an uncomfortable situation.