On a beautiful spring day towards the end of May, Sam Gillard sat with her husband in the garden of the Royal Oak pub not too far from where they lived. The first parasol-like leaves of the horse chestnut trees had emerged, fresh and green and fragrant. The psychotherapist said she was making excellent progress, and most nights she no longer suffered nightmares. Despite that, she had been advised not to try to return to work too early. The chief constable had given Craig generous compassionate leave, and more to the point had insisted he take all of it.

Sam sipped her gin and tonic, and eyed the man who had saved her from being drowned in darkness. ‘Okay Craig,’ she said. ‘I’m ready to hear the details.’

He had promised to fill her in on the various bits of the investigation which had not been made public but wanted to wait until she felt she could hear it without becoming upset. Today, finally, she did feel ready.

Her husband took her hand and stroked it gently. ‘As far as we can work out,’ he said, ‘Graeme Garrison became Gary Harrison at eighteen, and Geraint Harris six years ago. That was the first proper false ID, when he started to get all the utility bills with his name on in Telford, that subsequently allowed him to get a passport under that name.’

Sam shook her head. ‘So even in the year or so that I went out with him, he was already married to Mrs Harris under another name?’

‘I guess so,’ Gillard said. ‘And he was dating others. He’d already destroyed the marriage of Angie Wright, and was siphoning off money from a disabled woman in Nottingham. The family and two kids in Croydon, which he had mentioned when he was working at the college in Bromley, turned out not to exist.’

‘Sophie Harris was the first, then?’

‘Yes. He must have read about her and the lottery win. The story she tells is that he fell off his racing bike in front of her car, just as she was pulling out of a minor road one evening. She felt terribly guilty and gave him a lift to hospital. He must have played up his injuries, because she offered him money not to report the accident. She’d been drinking, and already had plenty of points on her licence. She said he was utterly charming about it and gradually worked his way into her affections. She was flattered, because she’s at least fifteen years older than him, and at first he didn’t seem interested in her money.’

‘Typical Gary, all charm at first.’

‘Like all the others, she just accepted that he would be away several nights a week. Sophie Harris said that he had gone to Miami for jaw surgery in 2018, which is where he got his teeth changed so radically. I think she paid for it.’

‘And the woman in the suitcase?’

‘PC Lynne Fairbanks. I think he might have been a bit disappointed how at little knowledge he could get out of her about the state of the investigation.’