“True enough, that would probably clinch it.” Burgess took another sip of lager. “Look, we’ve got three other complainants so far telling us that they were raped by another man after Caxton. This was in the late seventies, so it certainly wasn’t your Tony Monaghan, but there seems to be a pattern of sorts.”

“Any leads as to their identities?”

“Unfortunately, no. The accusers remember nothing about them, and there were no handy photos in newspapers, either. It’s my guess they were employees of Caxton’s performing a similar role to Monaghan, from gofer to fixer. He obviously let his minions have sloppy seconds from time to time. We’re working on a list of all the man’s employees through the ages, so we’ll have a lot of names to check out. Your DS Jackman’s doing a grand job on background, by the way. Some of them have to be still alive. We should have a few more people to interview eventually.”

“Good. It’s a pity about Monaghan.”

“Yes. But you must have your suspicions about the murder?”

“Naturally. And we’ll be investigating it. But that’s all they are. Suspicions.”

Their pints arrived, and they clinked glasses. “Cheers,” said Burgess. He pushed his plate away. “That’s enough of that.” Banks noticed it was almost empty. He worked on the remainder of his tikka masala and naan.

“I found out today that the Tony Monaghan murder investigation was shut down, too,” said Banks, “according to DI Chadwick’s old oppo, Simon Bradley. And the case files mysteriously disappeared. I’d say from all I’ve heard that Chief Constable Edward Crammond is in the frame for it.”

“Which makes it even more suspicious and more likely to be linked with Caxton,” said Burgess. “He had the clout to close down investigations, he knew chief constables, and it seems to have become a habit with him from what I’ve seen.”

“Good point,” Banks agreed. “But I don’t think you can convict a man for murder by trying to argue that he’d influenced several other investigations so he must have influenced that one, too.”

“No, but you can argue that he could have influenced that one, and once you get that pattern in a jury’s mind, it’s as good as done. But what are we speculating about this for? Caxton’s going down for the girls. Monaghan’s murder is icing on the cake if we can make it stick.”

“A separate charge?”

“It’ll have to be. They all will, or all we’ve got is similar fact evidence, and you know what judges think about that. And you’ll have to get a bit more than you’ve got already.”

“A confession would be nice,” Banks said. “Otherwise, it’ll never be more than speculation.”