‘CPS remanded him. They were very happy too. He’ll serve the time that he was licensed for and then whatever the judge adds at court. He’ll be away for a good few years.’

‘That’s good,’ Joel said.

‘That’s incredible, Joel. You two were tasked with finding a murderer. You did that while convicting a dangerous sexual predator on the side. You should be very proud.’

‘And Richard Maddox?’

‘He’s going to be okay. Last I heard he was going into surgery to fix his leg. He had a lump out of his arm but it was all flesh. Looks a lot worse than it is, apparently. The fact no one died in that old club is another job well done.’

‘It’s a little difficult to think of the positives. The girl in the hospital, I don’t even know her name,’ Joel said. Marsden looked fixedly at him. She leaned in a little to respond.

‘This time we do it right. This time we all take it more seriously, you included. This is the sort of thing that can get on top of you and that’s OK. You tell me what you need to make sure you don’t take that home with you. That girl’s death isn’t on you, not either of you, that’s on Nicholas Luckhurst and he will get what’s coming.’

‘I’d like to see the families,’ Joel replied. ‘Both of them. The girl in the hospital but also … that girl that jumped. Sometimes the police are involved in things that go wrong and we just move onto the next job, but the families involved don’t get to do that. Luckhurst couldn’t move on, Danny Evans couldn’t either, and look what it did. The families of those two girls deserve their time with me. They deserve to know everything. I couldn’t give two shits about what some DCI thinks, but they matter … they’re all that matters.’

‘OK then,’ Marsden said. ‘We’ll make those arrangements when you’ve had some rest.’

Joel lifted himself to his feet. After all the excitement, he and DS Rose had been sure to go straight back to the Luckhurst house and retrieve the key boxes – and the pen drive that Marilyn Luckhurst had used – before leaving that place. Joel had already dug through some of it but there was a lot more material still untouched. As well as the black folder there were pages of notes. Luckhurst’s research on each of his targets had been thorough – obviously an obsession. Joel leaned on the box for support, suddenly aware of his own exhaustion.