As it was, the situation was confusing. He wasn’t doing the best job of getting back to normal and he was pulling Imogen down with him. If they broke up, he would be losing so much more than just a girlfriend. He briefly considered telling her the truth, but the thought of how she would look at him from that moment on quickly put an end to that idea. He washed his face in the sink of the station bathroom and went back to the team briefing he had asked to be excused from because he kept falling asleep.

He sat back down at the end of the conference table nearest the door, just as Gary finished explaining the company financials to the rest of the room.

‘What did I miss?’

‘I was basically telling everyone how, as far as I can tell, there is no way to get him through the business. Certainly not quickly. It’s a dead end. Everything is just this side of legal and if there is anything untoward going on then I can’t find it. No wonder he was so eager to give us copies of his files; they are in very good shape. I have handed it on to someone in forensic accounting, but it could be a while before we get anything back on that, if we actually do. They are the cleanest-looking books I have ever seen. He’s clever; he knows how to cover his tracks. I’ll give him that.’

‘This is absolutely ludicrous. We are almost six weeks into a murder investigation and we know who did it but have absolutely no physical evidence tying him to the various crimes we suspect he is guilty of. Did you reach out to Cameron Becker?’ DCI Kapoor asked Adrian.

‘Another dead end. He didn’t have anything to say about Corrigan at all,’ Adrian said, his voice catching.

‘Do you think he was telling the truth?’

‘Yes,’ Adrian lied.

If he was right about what had happened to Cameron Becker and the police investigated it, it could lead them to discovering what had happened to Adrian. He couldn’t have that. Also he felt a little protective over Becker, wanting to safeguard his privacy, understanding that coming forward was his choice and no one else’s.

‘So, we keep looking; there has to be something,’ Imogen said.

‘So far, we suspect he killed both Simon Glover and Clive Osborne. We also think he maimed a couple of people, as well. We think he attempted to murder his wife, Angela Corrigan. And not forgetting whatever drove Leon Quick to stabbing himself in front of two police officers out of the bloody blue. There was nothing in the house in Oswestry?’ DCI Kapoor said.