It was only as she slammed the door that she realised her phone was ringing. Her wet fingers struggled with the screen more than usual but she just managed to say ‘hello’ before it rang off.

‘Oh hi. It’s Adam, Adam Compton. I didn’t think you were going to answer.’

‘No, I’m here. A bit wet but here.’

‘It’s raining out?’

‘Yeah. Shock, hey?’

‘Oh right. I’ve not been outside all day. Erm, look, I probably shouldn’t be calling you yet because it’s not official but we did find a few things.’

Jessica felt her heart rate suddenly go up. ‘What?’

‘It’s early and nothing will be confirmed until tomorrow but we found a few hairs on the top that Ben Webb was wearing. There’s nothing unusual about that but they’re not his or Des Hughes’s. I got your text but someone had already phoned through. We used those samples from the snooker club but they don’t belong to either of the two victims who were beaten up.’

Jessica held back from interrupting, letting him say the exact words she knew he would. ‘They are a direct match for Donald McKenna though.’

9

Adam went on to reiterate that things would need to be confirmed. They were going to request a new swab from Donald McKenna in prison. He added that nothing was final and that samples could degrade over time. McKenna’s initial swabs could have been contaminated or could have simply not been stored correctly. They had been on file since he was sent to prison for the armed robbery four years earlier. Nothing would be official until new saliva was taken and then re-tested against everything they had. He said his boss would pass on the first results to someone at the station officially the next morning but request a media blackout until a full re-analysis was done. It was a bit late to stop the release of the murder victims’ names but it would look bad for everyone if it was all linked back to a contaminated sample.

He drifted off into scientific speak she didn’t really understand and then said it was going to take days but Jessica wasn’t really listening. She knew it would all come back to confirm what she felt sure she knew; Donald McKenna had somehow been involved with the murder of three people.

She decided to rest on things that night. Adam had trusted her with information she technically shouldn’t have yet and there didn’t seem too much point in passing it on considering it would be phoned through the next morning anyway, albeit with the proviso that the testers wanted new samples.

The following day, there was definitely a different atmosphere in the station. Big crimes always created a buzz and, although Craig Millar’s killing hadn’t got people going, Jessica knew as soon as she walked in that news had broken about the latest DNA results. She didn’t let on that she already knew as the desk sergeant directed her upstairs for a meeting with Farraday.

As soon as she started to walk past the windows of his office, she could see Cole already sitting inside chatting with their boss. She knocked as a courtesy but was waved straight in and took a seat next to Cole on the opposite side of the desk from Farraday. ‘Daniel,’ the DCI said to acknowledge her.

‘Sir.’ The chief inspector proceeded to tell her everything she had already been told by Adam the previous evening. She nodded along in all the right places. If Cole suspected she already knew the details, he said nothing.

The DCI finished by summing up where he saw everything standing. ‘Daniel, I’m moving you up to take lead on this. I know it should really fall to Cole but so far it’s only three arseholes we’re better off without. There are other jobs to do around here. Take whoever you want to the prison today but then we’ll have to wait until the Bradford Park lot have done their jobs. If any more bodies show up, we might have to look again. All right?’

‘What are we telling the media, Sir?’ Jessica asked.

‘Not much. The press office stuck out the victims’ names yesterday. Do I think they’ll put the pieces together and link it to the other killing? Not unless someone gives the game away. It’s not as if they’re the sharpest bunch of knives in the drawer, is it?’

Jessica grimaced at the question he had asked himself but wanted to laugh at his dig about the local reporters. With her last big case a journalist named Garry Ashford who worked for the Manchester Morning Herald had actually helped her figure out what was going on, albeit not directly. Still, she liked the description and would tell him the next time she saw him.

‘What exactly do you want me to do at the prison, Sir?’ She wouldn’t normally have asked but, with them in limbo waiting for further test results, there was only so far they could push things.

‘Talk to the governor, check McKenna’s cell, put the shits up them all – that kind of thing. Talk to the wardens, one of them might be bent. Do I think someone there must know more than they’re letting on? Maybe.’

It hadn’t crossed Jessica’s mind that someone who worked on the wings could have helped McKenna in some way. It still seemed far-fetched but it was something she would bear in mind now that Farraday had mentioned it. A warden or someone in a similar position would certainly have more chance at getting blood or hairs from the prisoner than someone on the outside if they wanted to frame him. If they were working together, it would be easier, although still difficult in technical terms. It didn’t get her any closer to coming up with a motive.

The three of them held the morning briefing in the main incident room in the basement of the Longsight station. It essentially consisted of them telling everyone what had been decided in the office. The chief inspector reminded them all of their responsibilities to not leak any details to the papers. Jessica made sure she caught Rowlands’s eye. She hadn’t been able to prove it at the time but she was as sure as she could be that he had been giving information to Garry Ashford at the time of Randall Anderson’s killing spree. It wasn’t malicious and had drastically enhanced one of his friend’s careers but it still shouldn’t have happened. Neither he nor the journalist had ever owned up to it but the reporter’s knowledge of the police force’s inner workings had certainly stopped appearing in the local paper since Jessica had challenged them. Rowlands wasn’t keen to make eye contact and looked away.

After the briefing was finished, she motioned him over to one side. ‘Fancy a trip to the prison?’

‘You know how to show a guy a good time, don’t you? Hospital one day, prison the next. Are we off to the cemetery tomorrow?’

‘Are you seriously giving out dating advice?’

Rowlands winked at her. ‘Word around the station is that you might be looking for some.’

Jessica didn’t think Cole was the type to gossip and doubted it was him who had said anything about Adam but news travelled pretty quickly around a police station, especially if it involved officers’ private lives.

She thought about asking how Rowlands knew but didn’t think it really mattered. ‘Why? Are you jealous?’

‘Nah, you’re a bit old for me.’

Jessica snorted. ‘Only if you’re talking about mental ages.’

On arrival at the prison, they had been greeted by another member of front-office staff who was slightly unnerving. The people who worked there had obviously been given some sort of briefing regarding the police visit and the man was keen to ask questions and try to show how efficient he was. Jessica did her best to ignore him as Rowlands pulled out his phone and had what was almost certainly a fake conversation. Jessica thought she would remember that trick for next time.