As he approached his desk, someone called his name and he turned to see the smiling face of Detective Constable Jessica Abbott. She was standing on the other side of the room holding a tray and she gestured to it, asking silently if he wanted a coffee from the canteen.

‘Yes please,’ he said. ‘And in case you’ve forgotten, it’s milk and no sugar.’

She laughed. ‘I’d not forgotten, guv. You haven’t been away for that long.’

He removed his overcoat and hung it up, then sat and turned on his computer.

There was a mound of paperwork on his desk, but he wouldn’t go through it until after the morning briefing when those officers who’d been on duty over Christmas would bring the rest of the team up to date. He already knew they hadn’t been worked off their feet, and if something serious was going down he was confident he would already have been notified.

His computer screen flickered to life and he was about to check his emails when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

‘Morning, boss. Did you have a good break?’

He glanced up to see Detective Sergeant Phil Stevens leaning against the edge of his own desk while chewing on a slice of toast. His shirt was unbuttoned and his tie hung loose at the collar.

‘I did, thanks, Phil,’ James said. ‘What about you?’

Stevens shook his head. ‘I couldn’t wait to come back in this morning, if I’m honest. It was hard work spending three days and nights with the in-laws.’

It occurred to James that his colleague did look tired. His eyes appeared heavy and sandpaper stubble coated his chin.

‘I gather you’re in charge today,’ Stevens said.

James nodded, but didn’t say that he had only just remembered that DCI Tanner wouldn’t be in until Friday because he’d spent Christmas in Scotland with his family and was still up north. ‘I’ll kick things off once everyone is settled.’

Stevens nodded. ‘Feel free to offload any crap onto me. I’ll need to keep myself busy so I don’t doze off.’

James smiled to himself as he thought about how far he and Stevens had come. They’d had a rough start to their working relationship when James first moved to Cumbria, as Stevens had felt ousted by the new arrival. But the longer they worked together, the easier it became, and he was now James’s righthand man.

James returned his attention to the computer screen and brought up his emails.

The very latest had dropped into his inbox only ten minutes ago and when he saw who it was from his pulse jumped a notch.