But again there had been little to report on, even with Maverick on the case. While there had been a CCTV camera opposite the church, which covered the front entrance and recorded every person who entered or left on the day of the attack, Mav had advised that the footage was very poor quality and couldn’t be manipulated. Sami knew that people watched enough Hollywood CSI-type crime shows to believe that any image could be run through a computer to produce a perfectly crisp high-resolution close-up of the perp, but that wasn’t how it worked in real life. Very rarely could perps be ID’d from street-surveillance footage.

After going through twelve hours of film from before the bombing, Mav had been able to report only that of the 212 people who had gone into the church that day, only three had been carrying a bag big enough to conceal a bomb: a man with an oversized shoulder bag, a man with a backpack and a woman with a suitcase. Both the man with the shoulder bag and the woman with the suitcase had left the church before the blast.

Maverick sent an enlarged image of the man with the backpack to Sami.

‘Is that it?’ Sami enquired when the file came through. ‘Just a blurry still of a man in a hood?’

‘Basically,’ Maverick said. ‘He was picked up by another four CCTV cameras in the vicinity, but you have the best image. He knew exactly where the cameras were and knew how to avoid them.’

‘What about the other man with the backpack and the woman with the suitcase? We can’t rule out a remote detonation.’

‘They both check out,’ Maverick said. ‘Clean records, clean browsing history, clean all over. We were able to identify them using an HD camera down the road. Jones and Pacman have already processed them. No explosive residue in the bags, their apartments, anywhere. We’re keeping tabs on them both, but they ain’t our guy – the hooded man is the perp.’

Sami, who had been at the terror coalface since 9/11, had never seen anything like this. Not only was there no martyrdom video, but the suicide bomber had taken well-considered and preplanned steps to conceal his identity. That didn’t make sense. Suicide bombers typically wanted to be known. To be celebrated as a martyr.

Why cover your head with a hood and avoid cameras when you are about to blow yourself up? Sami asked himself. He didn’t have the answer. Not yet.

At least they knew the attacks were being carried out by a lone bomber. A hooded bomber with a backpack. That was something. He suggested putting out a global alert to warn the public about the threat of further attacks.

‘Not a chance,’ Morrissey said. ‘Can you imagine the panic?’