The penny suddenly dropped – the one he thought might be on his side had set him up.

‘Drop the knife, Dennis,’ she said.

He did as he was told, the weapon falling to the floor with a clang which echoed around on the breeze. The woman didn’t stop walking though. He put his hands out, waiting to be cuffed and knowing it was over. Instead of reaching for his wrists, she launched forwards and hammered her fist into the lower part of his nose.

He felt the liquid explode around his face, pain lurching through his body as he tried to shove her away. He couldn’t move his arms, as someone else pulled them behind him, wrenching them into handcuffs. Dennis looked up to see the woman inches from his face. ‘That was for Carrie,’ she said, rubbing the blood from her knuckles.

FOUR DAYS AND FIVE HOURS AGO

Jessica looked at Farraday standing next to her by John Mills’s hospital bed, trying to catch her boss’s attention. Mills noticed her expression first. ‘Hey, do you know who it is?’ Jessica said nothing but told the chief inspector with her eyes they had to leave.

The two detectives stood but the patient raised his voice. ‘Oi, I have a right to know. Tell me who it was. Hey.’

Jessica and Farraday headed out of the ward together with the man shouting after them. The nurse outside muttered something about not getting the patient excited and dashed in behind them but Jessica and the DCI were already walking quickly away.

‘What is it?’ Farraday said.

‘Outside.’

The two of them hurried out to the car park and Jessica strode towards an empty bench. They both sat down and she kicked away the smattering of cigarette ash that was next to her foot.

‘Do you know who it is?’ the DCI asked.

‘Yes but I don’t think we have anything to arrest him for. Mills’s description wouldn’t be enough.’

‘Tell me.’

‘When you left last night there was one thing I couldn’t quite recall, something that felt on the tip of my tongue. I remembered it when we were in there.’

‘What?’

‘Well, the other reason I was so sure it was you was because of one of the front-office guys at the prison.’ Farraday was looking confused. ‘You have to understand, I was so convinced, I was really sure. I thought you were either related to McKenna or had somehow smuggled his blood or something out.’

‘What did you do?’

‘I took in a picture of you and asked this guy on reception if he’d ever seen you. He came back to me a few days later and said one of the other women who worked there had. He knew your name.’

‘I’ve never been to the prison. Lots of people would know my name from the picture, especially if they were following the case.’

‘I know that now but he had me convinced. I didn’t think it through, I was sure it all made sense that you had been there and it didn’t even cross my mind I could be wrong. That’s why I wanted to get your blood tested, I thought you were related or something. I know it sounds crazy now but I’d put all the pieces together and . . .’

‘. . . It does sound pretty crazy,’ DCI Farraday interrupted, smiling softly.

‘I’m sorry, Sir.’

‘There’s time for that later. What are you saying? That it’s this prison reception guy?’

‘Mills said the guy had bright blue eyes and a scar on his face. The guy at the jail is called Dennis, you can’t miss his scar but the eyes too. I was so obsessed before I didn’t even see it. McKenna, his sister Mary, and Dennis all have those same light blue eyes. They almost look through you with them.’

‘You think they’re all related?’

‘I don’t know, I have no idea but why would Dennis say he’d seen you when you’ve never been near the place?’

‘We can’t arrest him because he has a scar that’s a little bit similar and blue eyes. We’d have thousands of people to bring in if that were the case.’

‘I think I know how we can find out for sure, Sir.’

‘We can’t just take hairs from him or take blood to check him and we can’t swab him without arresting him for something. Any evidence would be inadmissible.’

Farraday scratched at the mark on his face, an unconscious movement at the place where Jessica had cut him.

‘I know but if we catch him in the act . . .’

‘We still can’t entrap someone.’

‘Maybe not but say we had an anonymous tip telling us someone’s life was in danger. We could watch that person and if someone did try to attack that person, there would be no problem arresting them then, would there? Then we get a swab and, if it just happens to match the ones we had before, we’d know for sure if this person was our killer or not. Even if there was any confusion with his DNA matching someone else’s, we would have caught him in the act.’

‘Are you still talking about this Dennis character?’

‘Yes.’

‘How would you know who he was going after next?’

‘Say I gave him a push in the right direction? Maybe dropped a few hints that someone in authority was a little corrupt? That must be why the warden Lee Morgan was killed. I think there’s a good chance he would go after someone else.’

‘Why would he listen to you?’

‘He may not but I have a little feeling he might.’

‘It still sounds like entrapment.’

‘Maybe we can cross that bridge if it all works?’

‘Who are you intending on putting in the firing line?’

‘There’s already one person I’ve asked him to look at the picture of. All I would have to do was tell him I was asking about that man because they were possibly on the take.’

DCI Farraday puffed out his cheeks, blowing through his teeth and rubbing his head. ‘I’m not going to like the sound of this, am I?’

36

Jessica, Cole and Reynolds were sitting in Farraday’s office. The chief inspector put the phone down and glanced between the three of them. ‘The superintendent doesn’t have a solution,’ he said.

‘How long has Doherty been in custody?’ Reynolds asked.

‘Almost two days. I went to the magistrates earlier and we’ve got two days more maximum, then it’s charge or release.’

Jessica swore loudly. ‘We got him red-handed though.’

The DCI looked across his desk at her. ‘How’s the fist?’

‘Fine.’

‘It’s a good job twenty-three officers saw him slip and fall on his face, isn’t it?’

‘I said I was sorry.’

‘Are you?’

‘No.’

DCI Farraday said nothing. He couldn’t be seen to endorse violence from his officers. ‘I know we got him red-handed but the problem is, at best, we could only charge him with attempted murder. At worst, trespassing.’

‘What about the knife?’

‘What about it? He’s no-commenting and his solicitor could just say he found it on my property.’

Cole spoke next. ‘Surely the fact his DNA is a complete match for everything we’ve found is enough?’

The DCI answered again. ‘I thought so too. I’ve been talking to the super and he’s been going back and forth with the CPS. Basically, no one knows because the situation is so unusual. Normally when you find DNA at a scene and pair it to someone, that’s the end of it. The problem is it’s also a direct match for McKenna.’

Jessica cut in. ‘But we know they’re twins now, so what?’

‘Identical twins who aren’t, well, identical. Look at it from a jury’s point of view. You have one scientist who gets up and tells you the DNA is a definite one-hundred-per-cent match to Dennis Doherty – the defendant – but that it’s also a complete match for someone else too. It’s hardly “beyond reasonable doubt”, is it?’