‘Me too,’ said Max. ‘We’ve got my mum and dad staying for a few days, so Rosie will have plenty of help with the twins, and I’ve already warned her I might be late.’

The others all agreed as well, so Jackman left them working and headed out to Cartoft Manor.

He found Stacey and Jay still searching through the packing boxes. ‘Anything of interest so far?’ he asked.

‘Oh, hello, sir,’ said Stacey. ‘We were about to ring you. Yes, we’ve barely started, but Jay just found some personal papers in a folder with a load of stuff from the bird protection people. It’s Claire and Christopher’s birth certificates, so we now know her maiden name.’

‘Brilliant! Well done, you two! Let’s have a look.’ At last, something tangible.

He wondered why the son had been registered in the mother’s name and not Jordan’s but concluded from the dates that he must have been born before their marriage. He rang CID and passed on the information to Kevin. ‘Her maiden name was Bourne, no middle name, and she was born in Surfleet.’ He gave them the relevant dates. ‘The boy was named Christopher Edward Bourne. So the nickname Teddy isn’t just due to his old teddy bear.’ He told them he’d let them know of anything else that came to light and ended the call.

They found nothing of any interest among Spiller’s possessions, everything he owned was functional and utilitarian. The flat itself had no home comforts. It could have made a very nice home for a single person, being quite big, with a spacious kitchen area and a decent bathroom. But Jordan had obviously used it as somewhere to have a shower, nuke a ready meal and sleep. It depressed Jackman to think of the life he led there. ‘Is that the bedroom, Stacey?’ He pointed to a closed door.

‘Mr Courtney, the owner, is looking for a spare key, sir. It’s locked, and we didn’t want to damage his property unnecessarily. Shall I go over to the house and see if he’s found it yet?’

That door bothered Jackman. He stared at it, frowning. Why lock a bedroom door when you aren’t living there, unless there’s something you don’t want people to see? ‘Yes, please. Otherwise, I’m afraid we’ll have to force it. I want to know what’s behind that door.’

He went outside and looked for a window. There was one, but a heavy curtain hung across it, making it impossible to see inside.

Back indoors, Jay held out a small packing box. ‘Sir? This one mainly had leaflets about conservation and the World Wildlife Fund in it, but I found this right at the bottom.’