Lolly came inside. ‘Okay, so I just spoke to Ian Carrington’s ex. They split a couple of years back due to his irrational behaviour. Ian had always had a love-hate relationship with his old man. They were close when he was a kid, they were a very happy family, but when Peter was let go from Essex Police his personality changed. Peter became difficult to live with, he didn’t cope very well with his early retirement, all the shit he got from the press, and many of his old colleagues cut off contact. He went into a spiral and was arrested a couple of times for domestic abuse, but his wife refused to press charges. The whole thing had a massive impact on Ian, who fell out with his father, yeah? But Ian’s ex says that when his mum died, Ian went to pieces. He got it into his head that his father had been the victim of a witch-hunt and that the public hadn’t been told the whole story of what happened at the Bad Place.’

Her pen hovered over the notes as she tried to make sense of her handwriting. ‘And when his dad got sick, Ian saw it as his sole duty to look after him. He’d been a property surveyor but lost that job, and then worked at a lettings agency and lost that too. He spent more time looking after his old man than his wife and kids, and then he started dossiers on Karin McCarthy and the other kids from the Bad Place, started investigating them, finding out all the personal details of their lives. When Ian’s wife confronted him about it, he got irrational and flew into violent rages. Things fell apart and she threw him out of the marital home. He seemed to be under the delusion that he would return home when, and only when, he’d restored his father’s reputation.’

‘Sounds like a man in freefall,’ said Ajay.

‘Innit.’

Vaughn looked thoughtfully at the map. ‘What the hell is Sasha playing at, Ajay?’

Ajay was surprised. Sasha was relaxed about her team calling each other by their first names and encouraged them to do so, at least in private. But Vaughn was a stickler for rules and tradition, he had never been addressed by the DCI as anything other than his rank, and the unexpected informality clearly showed how concerned Vaughn was for his missing officer – and friend.

‘Why did she leave the office?’

‘She couldn’t get in touch with Angel.’

The two men stared at each other and Vaughn said, ‘If you’re trying to make me nervous then you’re doing a good job. When I spoke to her on the phone she sounded evasive… and scared. And now we discover she’s gone to pick up Karin McCarthy. Can we get a ping on her phone?’

‘We’ve tried already,’ admitted Lolly. ‘But it’s switched off.’