The detective sent a message to the site explaining that he was looking into the case of the Taiwanese man who had been found dead in Britain, and who appeared to have been in contact with them.

While he was waiting for a reply, Gillard wandered across to Rob Townsend’s desk to see how he was doing tracing the email address for Penelope, whoever she was. The research intelligence officer looked frustrated. ‘It’s been well disguised. Proxy servers, and probably more. I can pass it on to the specialists in the City of London police if you like. It won’t be quick,’ he warned.

The detective chief inspector looked around the CID office and saw how many good detectives on the team were working hard, using their initiative trying to crack this case. Unlike the early days, there were plenty of leads to follow even if none of it really made sense yet. Tomorrow was Saturday, but he had already made a formal request to Taipei police headquarters for a Skype call with a liaison officer. Brief translations of the documents found on Dr Chen’s laptop were still arriving in dribs and drabs by four p.m. UK time so someone in Taipei must have been working late into the night. The call would probably be early in the UK morning, but he could do it from home if necessary. In the meantime, he set off for the canteen to buy the entire crime team coffees and Eccles cakes, which had recently become a bit of a late-afternoon favourite. Crispy sugared pastry filled with currants. Probably not good for you, but he had never seen a detective get as excited over a grated carrot salad as Hoskins did over this confection. Hoskins’ late colleague DC Colin Hodges, equally overweight and equally fond of something sweet, would have been proud.

Gillard was just making his way back with a full tray, backing his way through the double doors into the main office, when Rainy Macintosh called for him. ‘We’ve just been sent part of Dr Chen’s will, apparently found on a different computer.’

‘Okay, what have we got?’

‘We’ve only been sent the covering letter, but it tells us a lot.’