‘Driving pissed. He was also found with a pretty big bag of weed on him. They let him out this morning on bail.’

‘Ok, am I missing the point here?’

‘You really don’t remember Professor Grant?’

‘No.’

‘I mean, I was only a little kid back then, but I still remember the news headlines. You’ve heard of the Southwell Slicer, haven’t you?’

Dani rolled her eyes at the ridiculous name. Why did the tabloids always have to do that? They’d tried the same with Ben too. The Barmy Brummy was the closest moniker that almost stuck, making him sound more like some loony character from a crappy 1970s British comedy than the vile killer that he was.

But as Dani properly digested the words, she realised she did know what Easton was talking about.

‘Grant was his last victim,’ Easton said, filling in the blanks. ‘He was abducted and held in a remote barn for weeks before the police found him. He was the only victim to escape.’

Dani looked back over at the gaggle of men. So had the snippets she’d overheard been about Grant and the Southwell Slicer? Or had they been comparing Grant’s fate to Dani’s? Whatever. She had to expect a certain level of chatter about her past. It was more the tone they had used, the smiles and sniggering, that riled her. Did they know she’d just come from the prison?

‘Grant was already a doctor of criminology back then,’ Easton said. ‘Apparently the Slicer targeted him for that very reason: because Grant was helping the police with their enquiries.’

‘And then afterwards Grant wrote a book all about it,’ Dani said. She’d even tried to read it at one time, but had given up halfway through. She had enough of death during her day job.

‘And there was a documentary,’ Easton said ‘Very nearly a Hollywood movie too, apparently.’

‘So what has all of this got to do with our case?’

‘It seems Grant junior, Ethan, was friends with Paul Reeve. I’ve got a list of contacts from Reeve’s phone and Ethan is on there. He was on our list of people to talk to anyway. Then he got himself nabbed last night.’

‘But he’s now been released?’

‘Yeah. Apparently we weren’t too connected there.’

‘You mean the lines of gossip didn’t quite stretch down as far as the local nick? Shock horror, DS Easton. Do we know where Ethan Grant is now?’

‘No. But we have his home address.’

‘Ok. Well, if he was on our list anyway, then we’ll go to him first. Any idea where Fletcher and McNair are?’

‘No.’

Dani rolled her eyes for the second time in a few minutes.

‘Let’s go then,’ she said.