‘Are there no clues on who the fourth victim could be?’ Imogen said.

‘It’s got to be someone at Exeter; if it was Bristol then he would have stayed there and dealt with it. It seems likely that it would be another professor.’

‘Are you sure Abbey wasn’t lying about having no contact with him?’

‘She didn’t have to come forward at all. She’s just trying to protect him, I think. Just like last time.’

‘And she had no idea why he’s doing it?’ Imogen said.

‘She said Robert Coley took a special interest in her. A bit like Gillian Mitchell took a special interest in Caitlin Watts,’ Adrian said. ‘I think we need to speak to Caitlin again. Well, someone does.’

‘We might struggle to see her right now since the grandfather got a lawyer. He said she’s not fit for medical reasons; her therapist has also said that any conversations about the case right now would be damaging for her mental state. The DCI is pushing to get her statement recorded,’ Imogen explained.

‘Covering their backs?’ Adrian said.

‘She was never going to get charged with a false report. She recanted really quickly, before you even got charged. Usually there is only a prosecution of the complainant if the accused has done jail time. Even then there have been less than a hundred and fifty women prosecuted for false claims in the last five years out of over five thousand reported rapes, and at least half of those hundred and fifty getting a conviction, that’s still pretty low,’ Imogen said.

‘I know. It’s frustrating, because I don’t want her to be prosecuted, but I can’t help feeling a little angry about it,’ Adrian admitted.

‘Of course you’re angry about it. Are you OK now, though? Relieved that it’s over?’

‘Yes, of course, but we both know shit sticks and people are still going to think some kind of deal was made to make her retract her statement, unless we can figure out why she did it. It’s going to be following me around for a while.’

‘I’ll see if I can get in an interview with her. All we can do is put in a request. I’ll take DI Walsh with me. I don’t think taking you would be a good idea,’ Imogen said.

‘Agreed.’

Imogen hated this. Everything inside her had always conditioned her to believe the victim first and then move on from there, but she had never believed Caitlin. That’s not to say Caitlin might not have been telling the truth, just that she was so sure that she knew Adrian, beyond a shadow of a doubt. She knew that he wasn’t guilty of rape. They had seen it time and time again though, a woman absolutely adamant that her husband wasn’t a pervert only to then be shown a snapshot of his hard drive containing thousands of depictions of child abuse. Or the woman with the nice new husband she loves and trusts beyond reason, enough to leave her teenage daughter alone with him for long enough for him to groom and exploit her. Those women had been wrong, but they had been so sure, as sure as Imogen was about Adrian. She wondered if she’d have accepted a guilty verdict for Adrian. Would she have insisted it was a frame job? These things scared her, new situations and her reactions to them. When Imogen’s knowledge of herself was put to the test. When she didn’t behave in the same way she would theoretically assume she might behave. Not knowing yourself was quite terrifying at times.