‘Major Crime have made their point, have they?’ DS Rose said. Joel stared out over an elevated view of the River Dour that ran alongside the station. On the other side of the river a concrete car park butted up against the historic old town gaol, with its tiny leaded windows in the basement that hinted at where the cells once were. Suddenly he found himself yearning for simpler times.

‘Politics. All my career I’ve done all I can to avoid it. It gets in the way,’ he said.

‘I agree.’

‘So we do that now. Here and now.’

‘We do?’ DS Rose didn’t sound so sure.

‘We don’t have time for briefings, handovers or point-scoring among departments. We know enough, it’s all in here.’ Joel gestured at the mess of papers laid out on the desks. ‘The Evans family, they’ve upset people, put their kids in danger … So who wants them hurt?’

‘You just answered your own question there, surely? All the families have a reason.’

‘OK, so who’s most likely? We’ve got PNC prints for all of the parents and a few other extended family members that showed up as associated on the system. And what do we know from that?’

‘None of them have any real history with the police. No convictions. A couple of domestic calls to one couple a few years back but not a single arrest among them. There’s nothing in there that tells us where we should be looking.’

‘I agree. So what we know doesn’t help, but what don’t we know?’

‘Are you speaking in riddles to piss me off?’ DS Rose crossed her arms.

Joel returned to gesture at the table. ‘They all engaged. They all did everything they could to help Hannah Ribbons catch the bastard that groomed their daughters, of course they did. Yes, some got disenchanted a few weeks in, but they all gave statements, they all sat down with Hannah … Except?’

‘The Luckhursts,’ DS Rose said, her arms falling back to her side.

‘More specific than that: Nicholas Luckhurst.’

‘OK. His wife said he doesn’t like the police. That’s hardly unusual. I’m surprised he’s the only one from the five families that gave us a pill, to be honest.’

‘She did. She’s terrified of him. There was something there, something I can’t shake loose. She wanted to tell us something, she fought with herself not to.’

‘About her husband. That’s the impression I had. I think she’s been the victim of abuse for a while at his hands and she’s building up to making those allegations. Hannah was building her trust. We’ve all seen cases like that before.’

‘Marilyn Luckhurst is the person who knows Nicholas best. She’s someone he supposedly loves. Why is she so scared of him? Maybe she knows what he’s capable of.’

‘Murder?’ DS Rose said.