‘There are. The CID sergeant did offer me help from his team. I’ll see if that offer still stands in the morning.’ Joel peered out into a darkness given an extra layer of thickness by cloud cover. It was drizzling too, the rain concealed in a breeze that was at least a little warmer. ‘We’re not finding that room tonight,’ he muttered.

‘Nothing changes by the morning anyway,’ DS Rose said. ‘Tomorrow we can put in the request with Danny Evans’s bank to find who he’s been paying. SOCU have their own financial investigators, they owe me a favour, they might even be able to get something over the phone.’

Joel considered this. She was right. A big part of life for the Serious and Organised Crime Unit was tracing money. They were good at it, they would be quick. Just not quick enough. ‘I want to avoid room service going in there and cleaning up. We’ll need a search, forensics too if we’re thinking gunshot residue on his clothing from when …’ Joel peered up at his colleague.

‘From when he shot Hannah,’ DS Rose said, finishing his sentence. Joel used the silence that followed to check the time. Joel had been out of the house long enough to wonder whether he should call his wife. She hadn’t called him, which meant one of two things: she had fully anticipated that a callout to work could mean that he would be very late back – or she was furious. It was time to head home and see which option she had taken.

‘We start again in the morning then,’ Joel said but DS Rose still leaned against his car door. It was obvious she had more to say, although the rain was now running over her forehead.

‘I know I’ve been … difficult,’ she said finally. ‘I just … Hannah deserves the best. Any copper killed on duty, they deserve the best, they don’t deserve to be part of some political manoeuvrings by a senior officer trying to become more senior.’

‘I agree with you.’

‘I know you do. This isn’t your fault.’

‘For the record, the superintendent would agree too. She can lose sight of the big picture sometimes when she’s excited but she sees us as just stepping in and leading whatever Major Crime team is in the area. I think she forgets that we don’t have her rank, people don’t just do as we ask. And she believes in us.’

‘She believes in you,’ DS Rose said. ‘She was positively glowing. I thought she was just talking like that because I was angry you were in charge, but she meant it. She says you’re smart, rates you above most of the career detectives out there. Talked about how you “think different”.’

‘Is that meant to be a compliment?’

‘I think it was. I don’t know if that’s true … not yet, at least.’