Instead, Jessica kept acting as if nothing was wrong.

She was somewhat surprised to be called into an early morning briefing by Cole, and even more concerned when he told her to come to the media room rather than his office. Although it was technically called the Press Pad, most officers went out of their way to call it anything but. The reasons for his choice of location became clear when Jessica saw the number of people there, including Izzy, three other detective constables and a handful of uniformed officers.

Not to mention Rowlands.

Rather than talking at them, the chairs had been arranged into a near-circle. Jessica deliberately sat a quarter of the way around from Rowlands, next to the chief inspector. It was far enough away not to have to speak to him but not opposite, meaning she didn’t have to look at him either. Small briefings she could deal with, but this was the type of corporate shite she hated: ‘blue-sky thinking’, ‘pushing the envelope’, ‘moving forward’, ‘thinking outside the box’ and any number of other made-up phrases that people came up with. Basically, let’s all sit in a circle and talk at each other until someone pulls out a weapon and puts everyone out of their misery.

Cole offered her a weak smile and she wondered how things had been going with his wife. They hadn’t had any time alone since they had talked in the gardens outside Kayleigh’s house and they had never had a close enough relationship for her to assume she could ask. She knew she wasn’t one to talk but the areas under his eyes were dark and the wrinkles on his forehead seemed to have doubled over the past month or so. He looked as if he could do with an entire weekend in bed.

After everyone had settled, Cole explained that things were awkward with officers being pulled in all directions, often with no notice. Through careful negotiating, he had managed to ensure that everyone in the room, with the exception of himself, would be free to continue investigating the deaths of Oliver, Kayleigh and, almost by default, Nicholas Long. He did point out that the Serious Crime Division were also investigating Nicholas’s activities, although they hadn’t yet taken on the man’s death because they weren’t too keen on looking into the elements relating to Oliver and Kayleigh. It was typical that the deaths of real people were being thought of as an impediment, rather than a spur into action.

After a few introductions, he told them time for briefings such as this would be at a premium in the coming weeks, so they should get as much out into the open as possible and share any ideas.

‘I do have some early results from Nicholas’s body,’ he added. ‘It’s as we expected. He died from asphyxiation in much the same way as Oliver and Kayleigh. There’s an additional gash in his head from where it looks like he hit his head and a significant amount of pressure was placed on the bottom of his spine.’

‘Was anything found at the scene?’ one of the keener constables asked.

‘You should all have diagrams and photos of the area. The sink is covered in fingerprints, so identifying any that don’t belong to staff members, or Nicholas himself, is going to take some time, if not prove impossible. A handgun was recovered from the scene but the numbers match what we have on file for a weapon legally registered to Nicholas himself. It shouldn’t have been out of his house but that’s a different issue. Taking anything from that is proving difficult given the fact it was found in a puddle of urine. They’ve taken the whole of the fire exit door to check as well.’

Cole tried to explain how someone could open a fire exit from the outside but wasn’t doing a good job, so Rowlands talked everyone through it. Jessica stared off into the distance but was unsurprised he knew the trick. The chief inspector emphasised that it only worked on old-style doors and that most buildings weren’t so easy to get into. He also pointed out that none of this ignored the possibility that someone who worked in the club had deliberately left it open.

Jessica talked the officers through Scott and Liam’s statements, as well as her additional chats with them both.

Izzy had not had the most productive of times speaking to the female workers. None of them seemed to share the disdain for Nicholas that Eleanor did but the constable described it as a consistent mix of fear and awe, something Jessica could understand from her dealings with the man. None of them would open up further than describing their own movements on the night Nicholas had been killed. It also seemed apparent a few of them were working without the knowledge of their family, something which complicated things further.

Jessica talked about the impression Leviticus and Ruby had given her of the man and they all knew about the suspicions around his business dealings and the position he held within the community. Finding someone with a motive was never going to be difficult, which left them trying to connect possible suspects back to Kayleigh and Oliver’s killings.

Two officers were tasked with tracing back everything they had in their files that could link the three people, with another small group working with the local CCTV footage. The initial examinations had found nothing from the cameras around the streets and Jessica doubted they’d get anything. It was still worth looking into, despite how time-consuming it would be.

When one of the officers asked who was likely to be taking on the business, Jessica said she had heard Long’s son Nicky seemed probable.

‘We’ve tried to make contact with both Nicky and his stepmother, Tia, but neither have so far been that cooperative,’ Cole added. ‘We took a statement with a few of the basics in, such as the fact that Nicholas often doesn’t arrive home from the club until five or six in the morning, but not much more.’

Another officer was given the task of finding out anything about Nicky, although Jessica knew it would be a struggle because of his age.

As they were getting ready to split up, Cole did reveal one interesting fact, insisting it couldn’t leave the room. ‘Serious Crime are going big on getting access to the filing cabinets at Nicholas’s club,’ he said. ‘They’re off to court later this week to try to argue they have the right to search them. Basically, if you’re at the premises, stay away. If you’re not, forget I ever said this.’

Jessica hung around, waiting until it was just her and Cole, noting that Rowlands hadn’t stopped to chat. Although the chief inspector had stood to send everyone on their way, he then sank back into his seat, as Jessica dragged hers around so she could see him face to face.

‘Is everything all right?’ she asked.

Cole offered a short ‘fine’ without looking at her, letting her know that any conversation unrelated to work was off limits.

She knew the feeling.

‘Do SCD think they’ll win in court?’ she asked.

His demeanour brightened as he laughed at the suggestion. ‘They’ve got no chance, they’re just trying it on. If they had enough evidence before, they would already have the files. They’re hoping they’ll get a lenient judge because of everything that happened in Moss Side this week. Nicholas’s wife has a lawyer on the case to stop anything we do.’

Jessica remembered Leviticus telling her how meticulous Nicholas was with his record-keeping, although one thing had always bothered her about the statement. ‘What I don’t get is why someone like Nicholas would keep records of everything if it might come back to bite him at some point. He must have known the agencies were desperate to get hold of them?’

Cole smiled, but the wrinkles around his eyes folded into one, making him look even more tired. ‘Why would Richard Nixon record everything that went on in the Oval Office? It’s not to do with knowing it could implicate you, it’s the arrogance of assuming it won’t matter.’