‘Possibly,’ Rachel said. ‘But there could be all sorts of other reasons hair was on the victim’s clothing. Humans shed on average 100 head hairs every day. Realistically, that hair could be from anyone. We don’t know how the killer got in and out of Tara’s building, but CSI found an open fire escape door on the ground floor. It’s possible they used that.’

Someone’s phone started to ring.

‘Sorry,’ Sam stood up, his phone in hand. ‘Border Force, I’ve been expecting this.’

As he left the room to take the call, Rachel went around the room, getting updates from different people and allocating tasks for the rest of the day. She was just finishing up when Sam appeared back in the room, grinning like a little kid who’d been given free run of a sweet store.

‘Robbie Fuson took a ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao on the twenty-fourth of April this year,’ he said. ‘He hired a car at Bilbao and handed it back into the same rental company three days later at Malaga.’

‘Where his mother lives.’ Rachel beamed back. ‘Good work, Sam. Can we get onto the local police and get them to pay the mother another visit? See what she says this time about her son’s whereabouts.’

‘I’m on it.’ Sam already had his phone to his ear as he left the room again.

‘Right then,’ Rachel said, looking around at the others. ‘This is an excellent step forward, people. We’ll meet back here again at six p.m. In the meantime, get to work.’

She glanced at her watch. She had one minute before she was due to meet with Sharon. Grabbing her laptop off her desk, she left the room and walked along the corridor to her boss’s office.

The meeting with Sharon went better than Rachel could have expected. When she had finished giving her update, Sharon sat back, crossed her hands behind her head and stared at Rachel for five long seconds before speaking.

‘Your first case as SIO, isn’t it?’

‘That’s right.’ Rachel licked her lips, waiting for the inevitable criticism.

‘I’m impressed.’

Rachel might have imagined it, but she thought she saw the flicker of a smile at the corners of Sharon’s mouth.

‘You’re doing a good job, Rachel. Just one question for you. How do you feel about London leading the investigation into the Coleman murder?’

‘Not too happy about it, if I’m honest.’ Rachel decided it was better to be straight about how she felt, even if it wasn’t what Sharon wanted to hear.

‘Would you like to expand on that?’

‘It just feels wrong,’ Rachel said. ‘There’s clearly a link between both murders. And a strong possibility both victims were killed by the same person. In my opinion it makes more sense to bring them together under a single investigation.’

‘And that should be here in Sussex, you think?’