‘You still think it’s the same bloke?’ Lewis asked.

‘Looks like it, but let’s not jump to conclusions,’ Langton said. She noticed Langton could smoke and eat at the same time. He was chewing his sandwich while smoke drifted from his nose.

Lewis persisted. ‘Looks like the same bloke to me, way he tied her hands.’

Barolli chipped in. ‘I agree.’ Anna noticed he was still chewing gum. ‘They only found her last night. How did you call us here so fast? You get a tip-off?’

‘Heard the callout over the radio. Got here almost the same time as the SOCO lads.’

Lewis knew his gov wasn’t telling the truth, because he’d been with him at the station when he had received the tip-off. It was obvious he was protecting his source.

‘I’ve already had a run-in with DCI Hedges.’

Both detectives followed his gaze to the blond man getting coffee at Teapot One. Feeling their scrutiny, the man glanced their way before returning to his mug of coffee.

Anna wanted to say something, but felt too wretched even to attempt to string a sentence together. They drove towards the station. Queen’s Park was a good distance from Clapham Common. The police station local to the murder site would automatically be setting up their own incident room.

Anna had never been to the Queen’s Park station, so she had no idea where she was going when she followed Mike Lewis up one flight of stairs towards the incident room. The station itself was old and rundown; the walls of the stone corridors were painted in lavatorial green, as were the stone stairwells. The second floor had worn lino on the floors and paint peeling from the ceiling and walls. Numerous offices led off to glass-panelled doors, interview rooms, filing sections. There was a sense that things were up in the air, with filing cabinets left at various intervals down the corridor. It was all confusing and bore no resemblance to the training manual, nor to workshops she’d been in at the college.