‘The fight was held at an abandoned warehouse. It was a bout between a local called Kenny and a Londoner – they called him the posh fucker – who’d paid for the privilege of putting the guy down, sir, but then he proceeded to stamp on his head.’

‘And you intervened at that point?’

‘I think he’d paid to kill him, sir.’

‘Did they learn you were a police officer?’

McNab indicated no. ‘It seemed wiser not to mention that, sir.’ He paused. ‘The fight club is a direct link with Go Wild. We could put an undercover officer in there and maybe learn more. I’ve discussed that possibility with DS Campbell, plus what I’m about to say next, sir.’

He waited for the boss to indicate he could continue.

‘So far, the company has been linked to four deaths. Three on the Orlova plus the fire victim, all under our jurisdiction. I got the impression from Cleverly that the Met is not happy about that, which is why he won’t share anything with us regarding identifying Ms Richardson as the deceased. Plus Dr MacLeod and I had a meeting with Ava Clouston last night.’ McNab began to outline to the boss exactly what had been discussed, before ending with, ‘I think I should take a trip to London, sir. A reciprocal visit, so to speak.’

‘How’d it go?’ Janice said when he finally reappeared.

‘As we hoped. At the next strategy meeting we’ll consider the Go Wild connections to the four deaths under our jurisdiction.’

‘With no help from the Met?’

‘I’m off to London,’ McNab said with a smile. ‘Two can play at Cleverly’s game.’

‘Good stuff.’ Janice looked impressed. ‘Want to see what Ollie just sent through?’ She turned her screen towards him.

The facial reconstruction of the fire victim sat alongside an image they had of Olivia Newton Richardson.

‘Well?’ Janice said.

‘Could be, then again, maybe not. I’d like to see what the super recognizer thinks.’

McNab made his usual visit to the cafeteria en route to IT, this time choosing two iced doughnuts as an offering since Ollie’s girlfriend wasn’t around to see.

When McNab produced the doughnut bag with a flourish, Ollie took a look inside, then horror suffused his face.

‘I can’t eat those.’

‘Maria isn’t working today,’ McNab reminded him, before extracting a sugary concoction and taking a bite.

Ollie fought off his fear of Maria’s wrath and helped himself to the other one.

They munched together for a moment as Ollie brought up the images McNab had just viewed.

‘Okay,’ McNab said. ‘You’re the super recognizer. Is that her or not?’

‘I can’t be sure,’ Ollie admitted.