‘Put like that, Jay, you’re probably right.’ Jackman turned to the whiteboard and stared at it. He then walked across to the second whiteboard and tapped the image of the man hanging around at the school gates. ‘We should show this to Annie Carson, see if it rings bells, although I think this guy is shorter than the one she describes and possibly less wiry.’ He looked at Stacey. ‘Show her anyway. If our killer is looking for his boy, then it stands to reason he’d be watching the schools.’

Jackman looked at the clock. ‘We can’t do too much more this afternoon, but we’ve made good progress today. Let’s keep up the momentum. Tomorrow, we have new avenues to follow. Robbie, check out Sky and those serial numbers, please, but Felix Becker is your main priority.’

‘Yes, boss.’

‘Stacey and Jay, you stick with Annie, and also that guy haunting the school gates.’ He paused. ‘By the way, where’s Simon?’

‘He went back out to check on the owner of Peartree Cottage, sir,’ said Stacey. ‘He was concerned about her, plus he wondered if any of the other houses along there might have home surveillance cameras in their gardens. Our mates have done a house-to-house, but he thought we might get more from their CCTV.’

‘Good move. If you see him, ask him to keep me updated.’ He turned to Kevin, Gary and Marie. ‘Our main objective will now be Claire and Teddy. Marie, you can start with the women’s refuges. Gary and Kevin, join in with Charlie and find out where the hell that Becker woman went when she left Hereward. Thank you everyone for all your hard work.’

Jackman felt more positive about the investigation now. If this was a father hunting for a son that he hadn’t seen in years, or maybe had never seen, it would answer some of the questions — like why steal photos of different boys? The answer was that he had to, because he didn’t know what his son looked like now.

As the others worked away, Jackman decided it was time to go and update the super. Ruth would be relieved to hear that their investigations were moving forward, albeit not as fast as she would have liked. He started up the stairs, then stopped halfway and took out his phone. He hadn’t had the chance to ask Sam if he could stay for a while. So far, every time he started to broach the subject, Laura appeared.

‘Hello, Sam. Jackman here. Are you free to talk?’

Sam said that he was, and Jackman explained how anxious he was about Laura being alone at Mill Corner while she was seeing this rather disturbing patient.

‘I don’t think for a moment that he’s a danger to her, Jackman,’ said Sam. ‘After all, he’s pinned all his hopes on her.’