‘It does,’ said Marie, glancing at her watch. ‘Better get myself over to that café. Hopefully, we’ll get some good news there too.’

‘Then I’ll stick around and see what Stacey turns up with from the school gates. As soon as he gets here, I’m going to watch the interview with Felix Becker. I’ll let the lads talk to him and observe through the camera relay. I’m very interested to hear what the ex-husband has to say about his former wife.’

‘Poor sod,’ muttered Marie, standing up.

‘Indeed. Love leads us to make some very poor choices sometimes.’

‘Oh, very philosophical for nine in the morning, boss. I’m off before you get too profound. Ta-ta!’

* * *

As soon as Jackman walked into the interview room and saw the white-faced young man, he knew that this was not their killer.

He was a smartly dressed man of around thirty, with good quality clothes and neat hair. He had given his name as David Michaels, and he swore that he was not doing anything untoward, just his job.

‘Okay, Mr Michaels, and what exactly do you do for a living? Not many jobs require you to hang around school gates watching little children.’

‘This one does!’ he said. ‘I’m a private detective. Look at the ID you people took off me when you brought me in. I’m fully licensed and I’m working for a client.’

‘I’ll need your client’s name and contact details for verification, Mr Michaels. Now, can I ask what you’re looking for exactly?’

‘A young woman named Ellie Carpenter and her two children. There’s a file on my phone, which you’ve also taken. Their details are all there, including photographs. She did a runner with another man, and her husband is trying to find her.’ David Michaels was starting to relax a little. ‘The man she took off with lives in this area. The biological father believes that Ellie has moved in with him and he assumed she’d try to get the kids into one of the schools around here. I’m just trying to locate them. I’ve tried all the normal routes and I suspect she’s using a different name. That’s all, honestly. I’m no pervert, I swear.’

Jackman believed him, and when Stacey appeared with confirmation that he did work for a small company called Fen Investigation, he decided that this whole business had been a red herring. But at least they could rule him out of their inquiry and reassure the parents.

Just in case, he asked Stacey to double check that this Carpenter woman really was the focus of the agency’s investigation. While he waited for the confirmation, he asked the man if he had managed to track down the missing wife and children.