‘Yeah. Not as me, though. I’ve got a few dummy Facebook accounts in different names I use for stuff like this. Just in case, you see. As far as he knows, my name’s Nick Connor.’

‘Nick Connor?’

‘Character from a book I read. Wasn’t very good, but the name stuck with me. Anyway, we started chatting and I sort of played along, pretended I didn’t know the history but was shocked and thought it must have been horrendous for the families that lived there, all that sort of thing. At that point he started coming out of his shell.’

‘And what’s this guy’s name?’

‘Edward Picton. I don’t think that’s his real name, though. Apparently he’s got six Facebook friends and no pictures of himself. Couldn’t find a record of anyone living locally with that name, either, even though he claims to live in Rutland. Anyway, we carried on talking and I made it sound like I was on his side with everything, and before I know it he’s mentioned a private, hidden Facebook group he’s a member of. Apparently there’s a small handful of people who’ve never been able to let go of the past and who are still fighting the cause of the displaced families.’

‘Fifty years later?’

‘Exactly. It’s all very underground, if you’ll pardon the pun. I didn’t really get a proper sense of what its purpose was or whether or not they had an aim. Just seems to be a load of bitter old people whinging about the way things used to be. But the point is it just goes to show there are still people who think that way. It’s entirely possible the historical aspect might be a motive here. I’m looking into the members at the moment. I’ll see if any of them are using real names or if we can track down who they are. Could at least be names we can add to our list and see if they pop up on the library CCTV or appear anywhere else in the investigation.’

‘Only in your spare time, alright? We’re a small team, Dex. We need to stay focused. You’ve got to keep your head in the game here and work on the lines of inquiry we’ve already got open. We can’t have too many different leads or we’ll lose focus and the right one’ll be gone.’

‘Gotcha. Mum’s the word.’

‘Thanks, Dex. Oh, by the way, I’ll be late in tomorrow. Got an appointment first thing. Can you keep an eye on things and get the ball rolling for a court order for the library CCTV? We’ll need to move on that quickly if nothing comes in by the end of the day.’

‘Acting Detective Inspector Antoine. Got a nice ring to it.’