It was the first time that Kelly had been in the news and targeted by journalists on a personal level. They’d raked up her history from the Met and got soundbites from so-called ex-colleagues about the botched Coryn Boulder case that wasn’t even her fault. It was years ago, in London, when a material witness jumped off a roof, being pursued by her unit. But no one cared. This was a classic case of coppers going after the innocent. What could she do? Her team had been put on trial by social media, and lost. Her face was all over the news and journos had camped outside her house for weeks. Which was why she parked a few streets away, and went out the back, across her terrace, exiting the rear gate, crossing a tiny bridge over the River Eamont, and scuttled over the newly unveiled Pooley Bridge, avoiding most of the attention from reporters hoping to get a shot at her.

It was exhausting.

There’d be plenty of them at the courthouse too. The world had gone mad. It was as if no one wanted to remember what Ian Burton had done to his victims, or the organised crime ring run by his father from inside Highton prison. All they wanted was to fight for a killer’s human rights because it looked good on social media and influencers got a million more followers for using hashtags such as #freedom and #justice.

Thankfully, inside the court room there was no such circus. In Britain at least, things like that were still unwelcome in the business of judicial proceedings; how long that would last remained to be seen. The way things were going, Kelly reckoned she might not hold her breath. Like the chief constable reminded her: policing wasn’t a popularity game and she should keep her head down and do her job, if she still wanted it.

She did.

Even after the media slurs and the stupid things she read on social media about herself, she still believed in her role, and that she made a difference. That was all coppers wanted at the end of the day. They didn’t get it mostly, but every now and again they did, and that was good enough. She owed it to the families of the victims.

‘Good luck, but you don’t need it, you’ll wipe the floor with them,’ Kate said.