‘It means she was begging.’ Joel lifted his hands out at chest height towards Miles, his palms up so they pointed at him. ‘The killer was pointing a gun at her and she was terrified and she was desperate. You’re never going to stop a bullet with your hand, we all know that, but in that moment when desperation takes over you would throw your hands towards it, wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t you?’

Miles’s gaze had drifted; his eyes had lost their focus. They snapped back now.

‘Sure,’ Miles said.

‘So then why was she shackled to the bed of a known drug user in the middle of Sittingbourne in the first place?’

‘I … we don’t have the answers either; we don’t know anything.’

‘You know more than that. Even I know more than that. I’ll tell you what I do know, shall I? I know Hannah talked to you about these five victims she was leaving behind and I know you gave her hope. You made her think that there might be another angle, that she didn’t have to leave it behind after all. So you can imagine what I think of you right now.’ Joel fixed his eyes on the man opposite. He didn’t have to wait long for the reaction he wanted.

‘You think I did this?’ Miles said.

‘Shot her twice at close range? Of course not. But maybe you provided the wild goose for her to chase.’

‘It wasn’t a wild …’

‘What was it then?’ Joel leaned in to keep the pressure up. Miles’s reaction was to push away from him and stand. He took a few steps, stopping to face a wall like a naughty boy sent to think about what he had done.

‘She shouldn’t even have been there …’

‘I know that. Source handlers don’t go to private addresses, not ever. They don’t go out alone either, do they?’

‘No. The process in here is very strict, it’s what … it’s how we keep officers safe.’

‘Tell me about it. What is the system?’ Joel knew enough already but he needed to get Miles talking so he had something to pick apart.

‘There’s a system, it’s the first thing we train, Hannah knew it. If an informant wants to talk to us they call a number that takes a recorded message. Then, whoever’s on call at that time gets a text to say a message has been left and they call the voicemail. It’s pin-coded. I get the alert too. The handler listens to the recorded message and will call the informant back direct to arrange a meeting. The meeting happens during daytime hours and it will be two handlers at a public venue. The meeting and the venue are both authorised by the controller or they don’t happen at all.’

‘Controller?’

‘Our guvnor. Your job if you were in here.’