‘AOK,’ Siobhan said with a smile. She was thinking of Grant again. She wouldn’t have got this far without him. Yet since his transfer he hadn’t shown the least curiosity, hadn’t so much as called to find out if there were some new clue to be solved … She wondered at his ability to switch focus so completely. The Grant she saw on TV was almost unrecognisable from the one who’d paced her flat at midnight, the one who’d lost heart on Hart Fell. She knew which model she preferred; didn’t think it was just professional jealousy. She thought she’d learned something about Gill Templer now. Gill was running scared, terror of her new seniority causing her to dish it out to the juniors. She was targeting the keen and the confident, maybe because she lacked confidence in herself. Siobhan hoped it was just a phase. She prayed it was.

She hoped that when Stricture came through, the busy Grant might spare a minute for his old sparring partner, whether his new sponsor liked it or not.

Grant Hood had spent the morning dealing with the press, reworking the daily news release for later in the day – hopefully this time to the satisfaction of both DCS Templer and ACC Carswell – and fielding calls from the victim’s father, angry that more broadcast time wasn’t being given to appeals for information.

‘What about Crimewatch?’ he’d asked several times. Secretly, Grant thought Crimewatch was a bloody good idea, so he’d called the BBC in Edinburgh and been given a number in Glasgow. Glasgow had then given him a number in London, and the switchboard there had put him through to a researcher who’d informed him – in a tone which said any liaison officer worth their salt would already know – that Crimewatch had ended its run and wouldn’t be back on air for several months.

‘Oh, yes, thanks,’ Grant had said, putting down the phone.

He hadn’t had time for lunch, and breakfast had been a bacon roll from the canteen, almost six hours ago. He was aware of politics all around him – the politics of Police HQ. Carswell and Templer might agree on some things, but never on everything, and he was poised somewhere between them, trying not to fall too fatally into either camp. Carswell was the real power, but Templer was Grant’s boss, she had the means to kick him back into the wilderness. His job was to deprive her of motive and opportunity.

He knew he was coping so far, but only by dint of forgoing food, sleep and free time. On the plus side, the case was now garnering interest from further afield, not just the London media, but New York, Sydney, Singapore and Toronto. International press agencies wanted clarification of the details they had. There was talk of bringing correspondents to Edinburgh, and would DC Hood be available for a short broadcast interview?