Past tense again, thought Porter. Was he the only one willing to maintain even the slimmest of hopes that she might still be alive?

‘They both did minor spells inside for assault when they were younger,’ Simmons continued, ‘but cleaned up their acts after that. With Bolton, it sounds horrible to say it but if it hadn’t been for the student dying we might never have had enough to start building a case. If even half the stories about him are true, then he’s not the kind of guy you want to get on the wrong side of. Trouble is that people who end up there tend to have a run of bad luck. Falling down stairs, tripping into traffic, that kind of thing.’

‘If he’s that bad a man, it could be him that’s in charge. He could just be using Locke’s premises to store the goods. As head of security he’ll have access to all areas. What’s to say he’s not doing all this right under Locke’s nose?’

Simmons nodded. ‘We haven’t ruled that out yet, but after what Carter overheard, we’re still leaning towards Locke.’

‘What about Davies?’ Styles asked.

‘Davies died back in 1983. He was found in his car, length of wire wrapped round his neck. No arrest made. Best guess is a run-in with a rival operation.’

There was that year cropping up again, but Porter dismissed it for now. He was struggling to make the connection. Simmons had a solid case, at least for Carter and Patchett, but even if Locke was the shadowy figure they suspected, and it was a big if, Porter couldn’t join up the dots to link him to Natasha Barclay. No matter how bad a man he was, it didn’t change the fact that her father had killed himself, or that he’d left a note that was vague enough to make Porter wonder if he had a hand in his daughter’s disappearance.

‘So I bet you’re wondering what this has to do with us?’ said Styles. Porter found it a bit disconcerting how he did that sometimes, pre-empting his thoughts.

‘You took the words right out of my mouth,’ said Porter, smiling.

‘So, that mountain of debt Locke took on when he bought Barclay out? It turns out that Locke could well have been the cause of it in the first place.’

‘How do you mean?’