‘You don’t give up easy, I’ll give you that,’ the man croaked then sighed. He pulled the door wider then stepped away. Joel took his opportunity to move in behind him as the figure crossed an open-plan office to make for an individual office in the far corner. ‘Do you know the best thing about working in the source unit and being based out here?’ the man called out. Joel didn’t answer until he had taken up the seat opposite without being invited.

‘Go on,’ Joel said.

‘If you need to hide, no one can get to you.’

‘And yet here I am!’ Joel said.

‘Here you are. DI Norris, I assume.’

‘You got my messages then? And you can call me Joel. You can even call me the names you were muttering while I was hammering at your door for all I care.’

The man’s tired features formed a smile. ‘We need a thicker door.’

‘You must be Alan Miles while we’re assuming things?’ Joel held out his hand for Miles to shake.

‘Who squealed me up? Told you I was still here?’ Miles said.

‘No one actually. But it’s the Monday after a weekend when you lost one of your officers out on active duty. I reckoned you’d be having one of those shifts that never ends.’

‘You appear to be very happy about that,’ he said, his own expression now slipping back to fatigue tinged with sadness.

‘You made me wait. And seeing as I’m having a similar time of it I thought maybe we could feel sorry for ourselves together. There’s every possibility that we’re both having long days trying to answer the questions we should be asking each other.’

‘Listen, I’m sorry, OK, I did get your messages, I know you want to speak to me but I have my orders. I’ve been told to keep my head down, not to talk to anyone. This whole thing … They’re looking for someone to pin this all on and my arse is currently the one on show.’

‘Sounds painful.’

‘I don’t think I’ve ever had a more painful weekend.’

‘Hannah’s weekend was worse.’

‘You think I don’t know that!’ All of Alan Miles’s pleasantries dropped away, his voice now a growl that sat him straighter and the hand that had been running over his beard now made a fist that rested on the table between them. ‘My job is to look after my team.’

‘So, what happened?’

‘I don’t know.’ Miles relaxed enough to sit back a little.

‘While we’re talking about jobs, mine is to find the person responsible for murdering Hannah. I can’t do that unless I’m involved in the fallout in here. I know how sensitive this work is but you have to appreciate that Hannah’s role is top of my list of things that might have got her killed.’