As Adrian had predicted, Corrigan was back at work before his wife’s bruise had even healed. She thought the law would protect Angela. She also thought Adrian was overstating because of his own experience in childhood. Besides, the law had moved on in the last thirty years when it came to domestic abuse. Maybe it hadn’t moved on as much as it should have, though. She was pissed off that Corrigan had barely even been reprimanded and she could tell from the look on his face that he thought he was untouchable.

‘Detective Grey. It’s good to see you again.’

‘Save it.’

‘Hello, Mr Corrigan. I’m DI Walsh,’ Matt interrupted before Imogen could say anything else.

‘Where’s the other one?’ Corrigan said, smirking.

‘We spoke to your old friend Gerry Thompson the other day,’ Imogen said.

She knew it was probably not the best idea to show their hand immediately, but she wanted to wipe that stupid look off his face. It worked.

‘He got fired for drinking on the job. Very unprofessional. He was a danger to himself and to everyone else, so he had to go.’

‘If you say so. A lot of your former employees turn to drink, do they?’ Imogen said, folding her arms and putting on her best ‘you’re full of shit and we know it’ face.

‘Well, if you met him you will know what I mean. Does he still live in that rat-infested shithole in town? Where do you think all his money went? He was everyone’s best mate at the pub. Life and soul of the party until he stopped buying everyone rounds. Now, he’s Billy No-Mates and no one gives a shit about him. I wouldn’t be surprised if when he eventually does drink himself to death it will only be the smell of his rotting body that would even alert anyone.’

‘Thought about this a lot, have you?’ Imogen said. ‘That’s completely normal.’

‘My point is, he’s not a particularly credible individual. My lawyers could discredit him within ten minutes. Whatever he has got to say, he’s full of shit.’

‘The problem we are finding, Mr Corrigan, is that no one has much of anything to say. They all say pretty much the same thing. It’s all very interesting but a bit too vague for any kind of prosecution. It’s almost as if they are scared of you. That alone is very interesting to me,’ Walsh said.

‘Don’t worry, though. We will find someone who doesn’t have a problem detailing all the shady shit you do,’ Imogen said.

‘Did you just come here to try and intimidate me? Because it didn’t work when your girlfriend tried it, so I don’t know why you think it would when you do.’

‘How long do you think before we find that one person?’ Imogen said.

‘I wouldn’t hold my breath, put it that way.’