“Yes,” said Banks. “But I still think we ought to keep an open mind. Don’t jump to conclusions. It wasn’t necessarily a grooming gang did this. They could have been friends of hers, for example, or people pretending to be friends. Or students. Kids today hang around with all kinds of ethnic groups. They’re not racist, most of them, except your BNP types. And Pakistanis aren’t genetically predisposed to grooming young girls for sex. After all, it’s not something we haven’t been doing for years already—and by ‘we’ I mean ethnic Brits and other Europeans. It’s not a specifically race-related issue.”

“It becomes one when most people caught at it these days are of Pakistani origin,” Annie argued. “And they weren’t caught before because everyone—including us—turned a blind eye because we were scared of upsetting the Muslim community. And nobody believed the victims. Remember that buried report from West Midlands in the news not long ago?”

“Can’t you all hear what you’re saying?” Adrian Moss cut in. “This is dynamite. Any one of those words or theories. As soon as the media get anywhere near this, they’re . . . we’re . . . we’re . . . I mean, for Christ’s sake: Rotherham, Rochester, Pakistanis, grooming. It’s a public relations nightmare waiting to happen. We’ll be accused of racism. Worse, of Islamophobia.”

“You’re here to prevent that, aren’t you?” said Annie, smiling sweetly at him. “And take heart, Adrian, we’re hardly dealing with devout Muslims, are we? Think about it. Alcohol, ketamine and possible gang rape were involved, and the last I heard they’re a big no-no as far as Islam is concerned. Whoever gang-raped the girl or beat her to death don’t believe in any deity I’d care to know about. They rape underage girls, sell them for sex.”

Moss groaned and put his head in his hands. Annie wasn’t sure whether it was “gang rape” or “sell them for sex” that caused such a reaction. “Whatever you do,” he pleaded, “just don’t mention grooming to the media. At least not yet, not until you have absolute proof and I’ve had a chance to smooth the way. Even then, please clear it with me first.”

“Don’t worry, Adrian,” said Banks. “We’ll be keeping as much as we can back. We’ll keep both you and the CPS in the loop. We don’t even know the victim’s identity yet. And there’s something else we should keep in mind.”

“What?” asked Annie.

“They may have groomed her and even raped her, but they didn’t kill her.”

“We can’t be certain about that,” Annie said.