Sasha Dawson tapped the second image. ‘And the man who sat in the front is a known associate of his – his name is Davey Jenkins, do you recognise him?’ She waited for him to respond, but he barely trusted himself to speak. ‘You do, don’t you, Abs?’

‘He’s the uncle of Rhiannon Jenkins. How…’ Abs cleared his throat. ‘How did you get these photos?’

‘I saw Gosling in the car park at Hockley station the morning after Andrew Dean’s death. A check on our database revealed a connection between the two men. Many years ago, they were both charged with public order offences. They were football hooligans, Cardiff City supporters.’

‘So you think that Rhiannon’s uncle killed Deano?’

Sasha smiled sadly. ‘At this stage we have no evidence, but it’s certainly a possibility.’

Abs felt dizzy and tried to modulate his breathing, afraid he was going to have a panic attack. ‘Why… why would they want to kill me?’

‘You were questioned about the disappearance of Jenkins’s niece,’ said the detective inspector.

‘So were a lot of people,’ he said quickly.

‘On the night she went missing, Rhiannon Jenkins made a phone call to her uncle in which she said she was going to see you again. As you know, Mr Jenkins has always been convinced you and your friends were somehow involved in her disappearance.’

In the weeks and months after Rhiannon vanished, Jenkins was all over the tabs pointing the finger at Abs. Making pointed remarks, veiled threats, suggesting that there had been some kind of police conspiracy to protect the famous celebrity. His angry accusations were one of the reasons why Abs’s career had gone down the toilet.

‘How did they know where you were last night, do you think?’ asked Sasha’s colleague.

‘The Laid In Essex! party was all over the media. It’s a big deal every year and they probably guessed I’d be there. Or they could have followed me.’ Abs felt all the terror of last night returning. Jenkins’s angry face, Gosling smoking a fag as if he didn’t have a care in the world, the wind billowing through the interior of the car as they raced through the streets, driving out of town to kill him. He was finding it hard to breathe. ‘He’s come here for revenge. Because he thinks we had something to do with… with…’

‘What?’ asked Sasha. Her gentle gaze was full of compassion, and right at that moment he wanted to tell her everything. He ached to lift the enormous weight of guilt off his shoulders once and for all.