‘But I’m great at making friends! I just tell them that we’re friends and we’re friends!’ The glee was back in the superintendent’s voice. ‘It’s why I’m here actually. I thought I would come down and see the source unit, seeing as how they’re not returning my calls. I’m starting to take it personally now.’ Her expression blackened. ‘And they would much rather be my friend, I can assure you of that.’

‘I just came from there. The skipper talked to me. He’s under the cosh at the moment but I think we have what we need.’

‘Oh?’ The superintendent took a seat in front of a whiteboard where DS Rose had previously started scribbling names and notes. ‘What you need to close the case and dust your hands, you mean?’

‘It might bring that closer,’ Joel said.

‘Go on.’

‘We had a body washed up on a beach in Dover, the job that was supposed to be my gentle introduction to murder enquiries. Yesterday, DS Rose and I found a matching head in Danny Evans’s hotel room. We know Marcus Olsen was convicted of child sex offences and a moment ago I found out that the woman suspected to have overdosed in the next room from Hannah Ribbons was Marcus Olsen’s sister. She’s called Macie Sutton. Sutton had previously been happy to talk to us about how her brother trades in indecent images. Hannah Ribbons found out about Sutton when she joined the source unit and the ball was rolling for an official approach. However, Hannah couldn’t wait. Her visit was off the record.’

Joel looked over to DS Rose for this last bit of his update. Her only reaction was to fold her arms across her chest. But Joel knew she would be hurting.

‘Hence the source team closing ranks,’ the superintendent chimed in.

‘I think so. Although I don’t think they have anything to worry about. Hannah seems to have gone off-script on her own. She was obsessed, this is one that got under her skin and DS Rose will tell you she was just like that.’ DS Rose didn’t add anything; it was the superintendent that prompted for more.

‘So what else do we know?’

‘Well, we know that all of these people are dead. We’re waiting on official confirmation that the head and body are a match but that’s a formality. DS Rose here has email confirmation that Danny Evans’s fingerprints were found on an internal door handle at Sutton’s flat. We also have verbal confirmation that the weapon used to kill Hannah was the same that later made a good-sized hole in Danny Evans’s head.’ Joel paused for breath and to take in the reaction of his superintendent.