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finished taking photographs and was now getting ready to video every room and cupboard the flat had, Harry recognized the feeling of excitement at
what was to come. Experience had taught him that most homicides were straightforward, albeit that they still needed to do a vast amount of work to get the guilty to court and ultimately to prison.
It was clear to Harry that this one had something that many didn’t have – no obvious suspect. Why this particular victim, however, seemed to be staring them in the face, although
nothing was to be taken for granted. Harry knew the dangers of that only too well.
    He wasn’t going to dwell on the reason why someone had gone to the extreme of taking another’s life. Motive alone didn’t interest him, just as long as he got the right person.
People usually killed for drugs, money or because they thought it was perfectly acceptable to pulverize a family member on a daily basis until one day they went too far. Few of the deaths he had
dealt with had been pre-planned, even the most horrific ones.
    Before he drove back to the police station, Harry made the decision to brief the team in the incident room rather than try to find a suitable hall or venue nearer to the scene. He didn’t
want to waste any more time on something that could be easily sorted out in the morning, simply so that they could have an overnight base close to Albie Woodville’s flat. He knew that he only
had a team of six on duty but they could cover a lot of ground between them. What was pressing most urgently on his mind was how he was going to buoy them up to investigate the murder of a
paedophile.
    It all started with the senior investigating officer; if he got it wrong now, the team wouldn’t recover. He drove the entire way back to East Rise Police Station mulling over his
tactics.
    Faces stared at him from around the room. There were dozens of empty chairs at the enormous conference table. Only six were occupied. He was surprised to see DCI Barbara Venice
taking up one of the chairs. He didn’t ask her why she should be here at this time of night, and tucked away at the far unlit end of the table. She gave him the smallest of nods and he
returned the gesture, making a note to ask her why she was still at the incident room six hours after her shift had ended.
    Harry couldn’t really make out in the gloom if Barbara was wearing the same clothes he’d seen her in earlier that day. If he was forced to guess, he’d say she had been home
once and returned to work. The fact that the lights were out at her end of the table meant that she hadn’t moved and tripped the sensors for some time. For reasons he couldn’t give, he
didn’t get the feeling she was there merely to keep an eye on him, despite her outranking him.
    A rattle of cups behind him alerted him to the missing member of the team as he hastened into the room behind Harry.
    ‘I made you a brew, boss,’ said Detective Constable Tom Delayhoyde, aware he was holding up the briefing but not keen to begin without a cup of tea.
    ‘Nice one,’ said Harry as he took a seat at the top of the table in front of the now dormant remote conference screen. Another of the constabulary’s money-saving devices that
was rarely used, its staff still driving across the county for a twenty-minute meeting.
    He waited a minute for everyone to grab a mug from the tray, accepted his own as it was pushed towards him and ran an eye over everyone assembled before him. He watched each of them take a
brand-new investigator’s notebook from the pile, ready to record all of their notes for that day’s latest incident.
    ‘OK,’ he began as he leaned back in the chair, his eyes momentarily fixing on each one of them. ‘Thank you for getting here as fast as you did. We’re looking at a murder
investigation as you probably already know.’
    Harry paused for a second and said, ‘The victim is a male by the name of Albert or Albie Woodville. He has previous