Instead, Cole moved quickly on from the brief admonishment to bringing everyone up to date with what had happened. He looked at his watch before pushing back into his chair and rubbing his eyes. ‘Thanks for coming back,’ he began. ‘It’s been one of those days and I know we’re all supposed to be off tomorrow. I’ve been talking to Superintendent Aylesbury and he’s delighted things are moving. It’s just . . . unfortunate it happens to be Saturday tomorrow and then Christmas Eve the day after.’

Until that morning, Jessica had lost track of the date. She was aware of the decorations and cheesy music in the newsagent’s and off-licence near her flat but had been so caught up with the case and Adam that the last week or so seemed to have passed her by. She had arrived late at Adam’s house the previous evening and it was only that morning when he asked her what she wanted to do for Christmas that she realised it was just days away. Caroline sent her a text message to ask something similar and it hit her that not only had she made no plans, but that very little would happen on the case for the next week or so. It wasn’t that she wanted to stop working on the investigation, simply that everyone else would. It was difficult to talk to people or request information when so many companies and organisations were closed for two weeks. It was like trying to work on a Sunday. Whether she wanted to get on with things or not, it made very little difference over a weekend because no one else was at work.

Around the station, Christmas was the time uniformed officers made their money and grumbled their way through a fortnight. It was full of domestic violence incidents, with family members getting drunk and fighting with each other before waking up in a cell on Boxing Day wondering what had happened. One by one the drunks filed into the station over the festive period and then, when the courts reopened, one by one they were sent packing again. For most, spending Christmas behind bars was deemed punishment enough.

Luckily for Jessica, unless there was an active element of a case to be worked on, many members of CID were given a certain leeway over their hours during the holiday season.

Put on the spot that morning, Jessica announced to Adam what she wanted to do for Christmas. It was fair to say he wasn’t delighted at the prospect but he agreed, as had Caroline. She spent the whole day trying to catch a moment with Dave to see if he was up for it but had barely seen him until this moment. Izzy said she would have loved to be involved with Jessica’s idea but already had plans.

Her mind was drifting when she was brought back by Cole. ‘Jess?’

‘Sir.’

‘Do you want to go first?’

‘Yeah, sorry.’ Jessica turned in her seat to address the other officers. ‘I’ve spent the day in the freezing cold watching a bunch of officers stare into a hole and ask, “Is that carpet?”. Essentially we discovered a secret room of sorts underneath the allotment shed where we found the list of children’s names. Everything has been stripped out and sent to the labs and, from what I overheard, there are a couple of officers in for a right bollocking for not finding the room in the first place. There’s not much else to say really.’

Cole nodded his head towards Cornish, who uncrossed her legs and leant forward. ‘I’ve been at Benjamin Sturgess’s house. All the electronic items were taken away but because of the hidden room under the allotment shed, people have been tearing the rest of the house apart too. I’ve not had much to do with that but, so far, nothing has shown up.’

Her tone of voice made it clear she wasn’t impressed at being taken from whatever she was working on to go and watch a house being destroyed. Ordinarily, a CID member wouldn’t be needed or sometimes even welcome at a scene such as that but, given the complete failure to find the hidden room under the shed, Cole had called Jessica that morning to say the chief superintendent was on the warpath and wanted people ‘with half a brain cell between them’ to oversee the day’s main activities. Because she and fellow sergeant Cornish had been out all day, Rowlands had been left looking for a paper trail along with Izzy.

Cole ignored the sergeant’s tone and looked at Rowlands. ‘David?’

As far as Jessica was aware, the constable had never sat in on a senior team briefing. She knew him pretty well and heard a twinge of hesitation in his voice. ‘We’ve been trying to find out as much as we can about “Benjamin Sturgess”, “Ian Sturgess” and “Glenn Harrison”. It now seems they are all the same person and we know Ian gave up teaching around twelve years ago. He and his wife sold their house around six years back. That was where our trail ended until yesterday. We’ve been trying to fill in the blanks but, so far, there’s not been anything to find. Benjamin Sturgess has a couple of books out but neither of them seem to be big sellers. We’ll keep looking but it seems like he’s lived a very normal life, albeit under his original name, as opposed to his middle name. Aside from finding them in a car together and the map, obviously, we haven’t got anything to connect him to Isaac Hutchings and, apart from the fact he used to teach Toby Whittaker, we’re struggling there too.’

Jessica winked at him to let the constable know he had done all right. Cole turned to the final person in the room. ‘Jason?’

Reynolds let out a large sigh. ‘I’ve spent the day interviewing Benjamin Sturgess’s former wife, Deborah. They are divorced but still have some sort of relationship.’

‘What was she like?’ Jessica interrupted. She’d wanted to do the interview but hadn’t argued with the chief inspector when he had given her instructions that morning.

The inspector tilted his head to one side. ‘Hard to read; sad without being upset, confident without being aggressive. She didn’t seem particularly evasive. She says they just drifted apart in their marriage. I asked her about the relationship with her husband but everything she said seemed as you would expect.’

‘Did you ask about Toby Whittaker?’ Jessica asked.

‘Yes, we talked about all sorts. It was one of those awkward ones where you’re not interviewing a suspect but, at the same time, you have to be careful how much you give away because they could become one at some point. She’s now aware of what we think her husband did but I didn’t ask too much because I would have had to reveal everything we knew. As for Toby, she says she hadn’t heard of him.’

‘What did she say about the shed?’ Jessica asked, wondering if anyone else had any questions or just her.

‘Not much. She reckoned her husband kept an allotment patch. Apparently his father did and he inherited the whole gardening thing. She says she had never been there, it was just something he did a few nights a week.’

It sounded plausible to Jessica. If Adam ever announced he was a gardener in his free time, she would certainly have no interest in helping.

There was a small silence before Cole spoke. ‘She was cautioned but not arrested and has been let out. We’ve got no reason to assume she had anything to do with any of this. The phones DS Daniel found at Sturgess’s house have gone off to forensics and they’ve taken a computer too. As for results, they told us the number that was texted from the phone is unregistered so we don’t know who the messages went to. Everything else has been deleted but they’re working on it. I’ve been told not to expect anything any time soon. I spoke to the head guy over there but, to cut a long story short, he says they have to pay their staff double for working over the Christmas period. With budgets the way they are, they’re shutting down for the best part of a week for anything except time-sensitive work. I spoke to DSI Aylesbury but he didn’t want to get involved so I don’t think we’ll be getting much until at least next week, if not the new year.’