‘Can I have the room? Joel, Lucy, just you two, please.’

The DCI’s cheeks glowed hotter than ever. He muttered while getting up and was still muttering as he stepped through the door. Marsden waited until they were alone. Joel had tried to read her a couple of times when the DCI was having his rant. It was noticeable that, as the highest-ranking officer in the room, she had sat back and let him lead.

Now she cracked a wide grin.

‘So that’s what I would call a steep learning curve!’ she said.

‘You could say that,’ Joel agreed.

‘Your hearing seems to have come back all of a sudden, DI Norris.’

‘I don’t think I damaged the ear, I just got a bullshit filter fitted.’

‘I think you might need one of those if you’re going to continue working Major Crime jobs.’

‘That’s an option then?’ Joel said.

Marsden held her smile. ‘What do you think, Lucy?’

‘Politics, Ma’am. Someone very wise once told me how they’d made a career out of avoiding it. I think they had a point.’

‘Very wise indeed,’ Ma’am Marsden said. ‘There will be a fallout too. The Evans boy was found right as rain but he was taken off the street when we had knowledge of a potential threat towards the family. We need to be prepared for that. The attack at the hospital too. We need to be ready for the questions coming our way.’

‘You mean my way?’ Joel said.

‘Not at all. From what I know, you two have done an incredible job with what you had at your disposal. What you didn’t have … well, that will be down to me and I’m big enough and ugly enough to take any criticism there might be. Major Crime will want to make something off this. You let me worry about the politics.’

‘What about the girl? Maybe if Major Crime had taken this … Maybe she wouldn’t be dead.’

‘The Evans mother didn’t tell us everything. If she had, maybe we would have been looking at Nicholas Luckhurst earlier, rather than chasing after Christopher Hennershaw. Let’s not forget, you arrested Hennershaw the same morning the hospital attack took place. With all the information, you might well have been knocking on the Luckhurst door to make an arrest, rather than Hennershaw’s.’

‘What happened with him?’

Marsden’s face flickered in a smile again. ‘Charged. Guilty plea too. Seems you taking his Playstation was the final straw. His solicitor advised him to go guilty on the grooming and blackmail offences against those girls. The evidence was good, I hear, what with the search of his home being done right this time. And his solicitor thought this was the only way he would stand a chance of avoiding prison time.’

‘And does he?’