They had gone over all the interviews again and had found nothing that spoke of Tunstall’s complicity. The efforts to get Vincent to reply to their request for him to be interviewed were continuing. Billionaires, unlike authors, treated afternoons with the police as optional excursions. The reverse phone book the Met held online had revealed the mobile phone number written on the card found in Spatley’s office to be that of a disposable model, known in the trade as a ‘burner’ – the sort of thing that organized criminal networks used to reduce the risk of being traced. At least it was still in use.

‘The assailant,’ said Ross, who sounded as tense as Quill felt, almost to the point of anger, ‘also waited until the night before we were due to interview Tunstall again. I don’t believe that’s a coincidence.’

‘Who, apart from Lofthouse and the four of us, knew we were going to talk to him again?’

‘Tunstall himself might have talked,’ said Costain. Quill thought he was looking well frazzled, as if sleep was eluding him more than the others, even.

‘Or,’ said Sefton, ‘the Ripper might have supernatural means of learning about this stuff.’

‘Has anyone got anything new about anything?’ Quill asked.

‘This morning,’ said Ross, ‘I heard back from Photographic Intelligence. As I expected, the images from the bar weren’t good enough for their software to do facial recognition.’

‘Fuck me,’ said Quill. He went to the Ops Board and pointed at it. ‘There is, as I have said before, only what’s up there on that board. It is where the only salvation lies for such as us. Let us think. What could we add to it?’ Already, the brothel business card had been attached to the corkboard with the number written beside it and an association line attaching it to Spatley. The card itself had revealed no clear fingerprints except Spatley’s, but now they were at least sure that he’d handled it.

‘But then he lost it,’ said Ross, ‘and that didn’t worry him too much. Which means it’s probably not a clue to him being involved in some sort of scandal.’

Quill frowned. ‘Why do you say it didn’t worry him?’

‘As owner of that office, he could have locked the door, moved furniture about, found it again. It seems as if it meant more to the person doing the searching than it did to Spatley.’

‘It’s time we found out what the connection is, why someone might have wanted to search Spatley’s offices for that card. You two –’ Quill indicated Costain and Ross – ‘take a trip to Soho and put eyeballs on the target.’

*   *   *