‘Lucy’s right. There is no area of the business more stretched. Last I heard there’s a four-month backlog to get the search warrants done in the first place so you can be damned sure there isn’t the appetite to do more of a search than is required when you get there. You need one image to prove possession, Joel. There is an argument for stopping once you have it. The only difference between proving possession of one image or the possession of a thousand images can be a lot of work for us, not the outcome for the offender.’

‘What about identifying victims? Safeguarding children?’ Joel looked at both women in turn. They looked as resigned as each other.

‘I agree. There was a time when we would take everything, discover a million images and someone would sift through them, grading each one and trying to work out if there was a chance of identifying the poor little bastard in the pictures. That does still happen if there’s any suggestion of a contact offence or if you have a father with kids around the age and sex of his chosen victims, then you would run through and make sure his kids don’t feature …’ The superintendent faded out, her frame slumped like she was beaten. ‘The world of Child Protection is messed up and the last one you would want to get the better of us, but the sheer volume, the way these people operate … I can see how the decision could have been made in Hannah’s case.’

‘That was why she was so obsessed,’ Joel said. ‘Not because she didn’t know who had blackmailed those girls – she knew exactly who it was, but her hands were tied by the organisation, she wasn’t allowed to prove it.’

DS Rose sat straighter. ‘Unless she could get some new information, something that could reopen the case, get the subject re-interviewed and another search done.’

‘Like the sort of information a source handler could get?’ Joel said. ‘Alan Miles said something about sex offenders having a very tight circle. Marcus Olsen had those pictures on his computer so if he wasn’t the person who blackmailed those girls to get hold of them …’

‘Then he may well have known the man who did.’

Joel took a moment, his gaze falling back on the pictures of Danny Evans’s broken face. ‘Danny Evans wouldn’t let it rest either. Between him and Hannah they were getting close to what they needed. And now they’re dead. And so is Olsen and his sister. All the people who might have had knowledge.’

‘So, we’re saying the person that abused Callie Evans is now a suspect for shooting her dad?’ The superintendent ruffled her hair as she spoke.

‘Let’s just say this may not be as neat and tidy as it appears,’ Joel said.

Chapter 46