‘Bad news?’ Vermeer asks as I reach her. She’s chewing gum and smells minty.

For a second or so I wonder about telling her. But then I think I might just start crying.

I shake my head. ‘Just some personal stuff. You get anything?’

‘Blank stares mostly. No one who seemed to know him. Mind you, it would have been years ago. You?’

I relay my conversation.

‘Doesn’t really help. Station?’

‘Yeah. Just let me make a call first.’

Nellie. But she doesn’t pick up. I don’t blame her.

Back at the hub. We have a probable perpetrator, we have a motive, we have strong links to the crime. The only thing we haven’t got is any idea of his whereabouts. After the trial he seems to have disappeared into thin air, so at the very moment when an investigation would be running at speed we’re now stuck in a crawl.

‘He must’ve planned it.’

Vermeer’s back to tapping a pen on her desk. I agree with her assessment. He disappeared so that he could plan the killings out in detail. But there are still so many questions. Why, after killing Lucie Muller, did he wait all this time until killing Marianne Kleine? So we wouldn’t make the link? But if he was that careful, then why follow Kleine’s death up with Dirk Zeeman’s straight away? Why not wait like he did before?

‘You think he could be sick?’ I ask. ‘Maybe he’s only got limited time left and had to do it now?’

‘He was the only one who had the experimental drug and survived, wasn’t he?’

‘Yeah. Maybe it didn’t kill him but damaged him somehow. Like those people at the Groeneveen; it took some time after exposure for them to get sick.’

‘The problem is, there are basically two cases: the murders, and DH Biotech’s cover-up of their failed trial. Given the lengths they went to it was more than financial expedience; they must have been worried about a criminal prosecution. Which means they might have known the drug could have had the effect it did.’

Tap tap tap goes the pen.

I find one and start doing the same. Vermeer gives me a look and stops.