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tuns, two pints in front of him.
    ‘I took the liberty, like. Thought you’d need it after a day of nappy changing.’
    ‘It’s not all fun, you know’ said Hall, smiling and reaching out and shaking Dixon’s hand. ‘Did you read the stuff I sent you?’
    ‘Aye, most of it. I remember that case, vaguely. Well, talking to a couple of the lads who worked on it, anyway. They always thought it was the husband, I do remember that, but they couldn’t charge him until the body was found. I remember this old DS saying to me that Burke was nervous as a kitten, right from the off, and he thought that the bloke would ‘fess up, sooner or later, but he never did.’
    ‘What about the transcript of the trial? Any thoughts?’
    ‘Doesn’t tell us much, does it? Same old story, really. Both sides just pick and choose what they fancy, don’t they? But the defence did a pretty crap job, I must say. Without any forensics or relevant eye wits I doubt it would even come to trial these days. The chances of a conviction would be too small to justify the costs. That’s what the accountants would say, and we all know that they outrank any detective in the whole wide world these days.’
    ‘I agree, a prosecution would be very unlikely. But on the basis of what you’ve read, do you think that Burke is guilty?’
     
    Dixon took a sip from his pint. ‘Is there a right and a wrong answer to that question, like?’
    ‘Do you mean have I formed a view? Well, we worked together for nearly ten years, so what do you think?’
    ‘No, it’s too soon. Nothing like enough information. And I agree with you, there’s not. But I’d say he probably did do it, because in cases like this the hubby has to be favourite. But I’d like to have had a proper look at this Jack Lee bloke, I will say that.’
    ‘He had a solid enough alibi though, didn’t he?’
    ‘Aye, but just on the day she went missing. That’s not necessarily the day she died though, is it?’
    ‘Exactly. What if she died the next day, or the next week? What if she was off with her new bloke, tucked away out of sight somewhere, and he killed her a few days later?’
    ‘This Lee bloke?’
    ‘Possibly. But nothing came up in the trial to support that hypothesis. The defence certainly didn’t try to run with it, anyway.’
    ‘But the victim did know Lee?’
    ‘Certainly. Adam Burke and Jack Lee had been friends since they were at school, they weren’t just workmates. So Lee has to be a possibility. But that’s not where I’d start.’
     
    Dixon nodded and smiled. ‘What’s it you used to call it? Occam’s razor? It means that the most likely explanation for something is probably right, doesn’t it?’
    ‘More or less.’
    ‘You’d start with Burke, wouldn’t you? See if you could prove he didn’t do it, or…’
    ‘Prove that he did. Yes, that’s what we’ll do first. Concentrate on Adam Burke.’
    ‘And is Sarah Hardcastle all right with that? I’m not sure that it’s exactly the way that she’d see it playing out, like. Putting her boy straight back in the frame like this.’
    ‘Yes, she’s OK with it. How we go about this is totally up to us, she was quite clear about that. He’s done his time, so if we find new evidence in support of his conviction then it won’t matter, unless we connect him to other offences.’
    ‘All right. So long as they know what might happen. But of course there is the other interested party in all this, isn’t there?’
    ‘Our former colleagues on the job? Yes, I’ve been thinking about them.’
    ‘I bet you have. I can’t see them giving us access to the case file, and without it we’re sunk. And it’s all too long ago to start again, right from scratch, Andy. We’d get nowhere.’
    ‘I know, but I’ve got my pitch worked out.’
    ‘Which is?’
    ‘Basically that if it’s not us poking about in all this then it’ll be someone else, someone that the force doesn’t know. People in the job know me, they know