‘What are you thinking?’ Imogen said.

‘The same thing you are, I expect. It has to be him. Call Gary and see if he can find anything; there is still loads on those computers he hasn’t been through and he says it’s much easier when he knows what he’s looking for.’

Adrian got in the car and waited for Imogen to finish on the phone to Gary. She got in and nodded for him to start driving towards the Countess Weir roundabout. He didn’t feel much urgency, even though every fibre of his being was telling him that Pike was the one. The state of his office wasn’t a recent thing, the dust had well and truly settled.

‘Pike’s the one who gave me Lassiter’s address. I remember him, I didn’t get a creepy vibe from him at all,’ Imogen said.

‘Why would you?’

‘You just kind of hope you would know, don’t you?’ Imogen said.

‘Imagine how easy our job would be then.’

‘I suppose.’

Adrian turned off the roundabout and headed out towards Woodbury Salterton, the location of Marcus Pike’s house. He wondered what he would find when he got there. Part of him hoped that they would walk in to discover Marcus Pike’s mutilated corpse, not because he wanted that to happen but because he wanted to know that Parker had made it out of the fire. The fire department had only found partial remains of Finn Blackwell among the bones, but it was possible they had made a mistake, wasn’t it? The house was so old it had gone up like kindling, and by the time the fire fighters had hooked their hoses up, the house was a roaring flame. The downside of finding Pike’s body was, of course, that Parker being at large would trigger another investigation and who knew what information would come out. Adrian’s primary concern was Imogen in all this; he couldn’t tell her he had seen Parker in the house, he couldn’t make her lie for him any more. From now on he wouldn’t put her career in jeopardy just because of his own skewed morality. Even if it meant lying to her.

‘This is it,’ Imogen said as they approached a white thatched cottage precariously nestled in the centre of the fork in the road.

There was a For Sale sign knocked down in the shrubs in front of the house that opened directly onto the B road. Adrian turned into the driveway and stopped the car.

‘Wait here, I’ll go and check it out,’ he said.

‘Not a chance.’

She knew what he was thinking, he could see it on her face. She was right behind him as he walked to the front door. He rang the bell and there was no answer.

‘They’re gone,’ a voice shouted from across the road.

Adrian turned to see the door to the house opposite open and an elderly gentleman standing in the doorway.

‘Lorry came this morning, a big ‘un. Left about an hour ago.’