Marsden seemed to hesitate for the first time. ‘That is what I mean, but if you don’t think you’re up to it …’ She faded out. She wasn’t very good at this. Joel had been off for just under a month for something he had been forced to categorise as stress. It was the first time he could recall taking more than a day off for anything and it had caught everyone by surprise – no one more than him.

‘I’m fine. I’m raring to get back.’

‘Of course you are. And this way you get to experience leading a murder investigation without the scrutiny. This is just the sort of thing I was waiting for to kick this whole thing off.’

Joel was rubbing at his face, and the superintendent picked up on it. ‘What’s the matter?’ she said.

‘I mean, I agree with you, Ma’am, this is the sort of thing that will be ideal for me and my team … but I don’t have a team. Our last conversation was about how I was going to be shadowing the next murder investigation. Is this not it?’

‘Well, yes, it is. But there’s been a change of plan.’

‘With respect, Ma’am, the old plan made sense.’

‘Now it isn’t possible. My colleague on the SLT who has overall responsibility for Major Crime is not supportive of you tagging along. Seems we either take the job or not. I did tell you this would be a political animal.’

It seemed to Joel that everything was political when it came to the Senior Leadership Team. ‘You know how resource-intensive an investigation like this can be. Who are my foot soldiers?’

‘The sergeant who is on scene now has a list of fast-track actions. He also has a team of DCs at his disposal to be getting through them. I have made it clear that they are to continue to be at your disposal moving forward.’

‘CID are busy, bursting at the seams even.’

‘They are. But having spoken to the DS down there now I can tell you another thing: they’re bursting to be given the opportunity to work on something like this. What would you rather do, a shitty domestic, a no-hope burglary report, or getting your teeth into a murder investigation led by a charismatic and committed new DI?’

‘You missed out gullible.’

‘Did I? I won’t do that again.’ She smiled. Joel couldn’t quite muster the same. ‘Look, I’m on hand for what you need and when you need it. I’ve already tipped off the Force Resource Unit that we might need to pull detectives or uniform coppers onto this so they can start setting something aside. I can secure an overtime budget if it’s needed but for now you just need to see what we have. Is there anything else you think you need right now?’

The superintendent was still smiling.