‘Thanks. Well she has. The station that housed the digital CCTV feed is in the basement, and it’s completely blank. We don’t even have footage from anyone arriving last week. It’s gone. Or it never worked.’

‘Curious, because the owner told my officers that Kennedy-Craig looked at the CCTV on Monday morning to see if he could catch who had left the graffiti on the side of the house, and it was working then. Will you be able to tell if it was wiped since then?’ Kelly asked.

‘Not straight away. The equipment was unplugged. I saw them bag it to take away, so when they analyse it they can see when the IP address was last used. If it was Monday then I’d say you have a problem.’

‘Where’s the owner?’

‘In her private house over there.’ Zoe pointed to the small cottage behind some large mature trees.

‘The warrant doesn’t extend to her private residence,’ Kelly said. ‘Now I know that information I’ll request it, but if she was the one who wiped the CCTV then I doubt we’ll find anything inside her house.’

‘Well if it was her who tidied up inside then she did a shit job, so look at the positives,’ Zoe said.

They carried on walking and came to a wooden barn, much like the others around it. Kelly saw Lance inside checking various boxes of equipment. He stopped what he was doing and walked towards Kelly.

‘Have you told her?’ he asked Zoe, who shook her head.

‘Told me what?’ Kelly asked.

‘This has got to be one of the most badly organised excuses for a maintenance shed we’ve ever seen. There’s shit everywhere. Boxes of tools, stuff left around, wires and spare parts, no paperwork, and I mean zero paperwork. I flew with both of those pilots and I have no idea what would make them so casual.’

‘Money?’ Kelly suggested.

‘It’s out of character and goes against everything they learn in the forces. They know money can’t buy safety,’ Lance said.

‘People get carried away, arrogant even, complacent at least,’ she said. ‘They get put up overnight here in a swanky pad, they tell their girlfriends they’re being treated like lords, told everything is taken care of, plus they get paid more money than they’ve ever been paid before. Cushy deal, wouldn’t you say?’ Kelly asked.

‘I just can’t believe they would compromise themselves like that,’ Lance said.

‘I get where she’s coming from. Ninety per cent of accidents I investigate are pilot error caused by poor judgement. Humans and machines are not great bedfellows,’ Zoe said.

It was Kelly’s best working theory that the pilots were wooed so successfully by the good things in life that they simply let their standards slip. It wouldn’t be the first time.