The prison warden, Ted Mountford, greeted them and showed Jack and Sally into the hospital wing. All the beds were empty, except one. They approached Dorling’s bed; he had his eyes closed.

“Dorling, are you awake?” Mountford shook the man’s shoulder gently.

Dorling’s left eye opened lazily and blinked shut again. “No. Go away,” he replied groggily.

“Wake up. The police are here to see you.”

“I’m tired. I’ve got nothing to say. They wouldn’t believe me anyway. That’s the bitch who banged me up.”

“Less of the insults, man. Wake up!” Warden Mountford’s voice grew in volume.

Sally tugged on the warden’s arm and moved closer to the bed. “Dorling, if you cooperate with us, I’ll do my very best to get you out of here. I promise.”

“Ha! When the filth makes a promise, I know you’re lying.”

“Not in my case, I assure you. Can you open your eyes and look at me?”

“No. For one thing, I can’t keep them open for long because of the drugs they’re pumping into me, and for another, why would I want to look at an ugly bitch like you?”

“That’s enough, Dorling. Show some respect,” the warden said.

“To someone who banged up an innocent man? That’ll be me by the way. I told her I didn’t do it, but she wouldn’t listen.”

“I’m sorry. At the time, we had DNA proof that put you at the scene. We call that incriminating evidence and find it hard to ignore.”

“So what’s changed? You didn’t believe me then. Why now?”

Sally sighed and pulled the sketch from her pocket. “Since then, another murder has been committed, while you were in here. Please, I have a picture of a possible suspect, if you’ll just open your eyes and look at the likeness our sketch artist drew.”

“I told you I wouldn’t be able to focus. Another murder, you say?”

“Yes, the thing is, the murderer left your DNA at the scene.”

Dorling sat upright in bed, his eyes twitching furiously but refusing to open. “What? How is that possible? Unless one of your lot effing done it, that is. You guys are known for tampering with evidence, ain’t ya? Well, this time, it’s come back and taken a chunk out of your arse, lady.”

“I really don’t think that’s the case. Please, look at the sketch.” Sally implored the prisoner.

One eye eased open, then the other. Before long, they clamped shut again, the effort proving to be too much for Dorling. “Nope, no help. Sorry.”

“Please try harder. Give me a break. It’s your skin I’m trying to save here.”

He tried a second time, with the same agonising, lacklustre result. “I can’t. Come back in a few days.”

Warden Mountford shook his head and escorted them from the room. “It’s no good. I don’t think he’s playing silly buggers, either. You’re aware of what injuries occur when someone tries to hang themselves, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I’m aware. Possible tearing of the eye muscles from the force.” He nodded. “Okay, we’ll leave it a few days and return on Monday. How’s that?”

“Sounds good to me. Sorry you’ve had a wasted trip.”

Once they were settled in the car, Sally struck the steering wheel with her hand. “Shit! You know what this means, don’t you?”

“No, what?”

She exhaled an impatient breath. “The weekend is fast approaching.”

“Sunday and Monday are when the killer strikes. I understand. Have you got any plans for the weekend?”

“I have to pick Dex up from the vet’s tonight, then I plan on making a fuss of him for the next few days—while mulling over the case, of course.”

“Why am I not surprised about that? You working the case on your weekend off, I mean.”

“What about you?” She started the car and drove out of the prison car park.

“Same old thing: Confrontation City, dead ahead.”

She glanced at him then looked back at the road. “I thought things had settled down at home?”

“They have slightly. It’s still like walking on a frozen lake, though. One wrong step, and you end up in the drink, gasping for breath.”

“Families! Don’t you just love them?”

“Not particularly, no!”

Back at the station, they found Detective Chief Inspector Mike Green standing at the whiteboard in the incident room.

“Hello, sir. Can I help at all?” Sally asked.

He continued to read the information, his arms folded and his brow furrowed. “I just thought I’d drop by so that you can bring me up to date on the case, Inspector, as you’ve neglected to do that particular task so far, in spite of my instructions.”

“Not intentional, I assure you, sir. The facts have been very hard to come by on this one.”

He unfurled one of his arms and tapped the top of the board with his outstretched finger. “DNA evidence is usually the key to any investigation, isn’t it, Inspector?”

“Ordinarily it is, sir. However, at the moment, it’s all very confusing. We arrested and charged a man for three of the murders, but then another victim landed on our patch with the man’s DNA. The thing is, he was behind bars at the time of the murder, so there is no chance he carried out the crime.”

“I see. What sort of DNA? Semen again?”

“Yes, sir. That type of DNA is hard to discount, as you can imagine.”

“So, what do you intend doing about it, Inspector?” his eyes remained on the board as he asked the question.

Sally gulped. “Our hands are tied right now, sir. We do have an initial sketch of another suspect, but I don’t think it’s a good likeness, to be honest. We’ve shown it to all the possible witnesses and haven’t produced a single name as yet.”

He slowly swivelled to face her, and his eyes widened once they landed on her face. “What the?”

Self-consciously, she looked away from her superior. “It’s nothing, sir.”

He marched past her. “In your office, now.”

Sally raised her eyes to the ceiling and told Jack to hold the fort. “Make sure everyone is chasing up what they need to chase, Jack. Looks like I’m in for a bumpy ride. Let’s try not piss him off any more than we have to, eh?”

The chief held open the door until she’d joined him. He slammed it shut after she’d sat in her chair behind the desk, which thankfully, she’d managed to clear a little. “In my defence, sir, one black eye was caused in the line of duty.”

He lowered himself into the chair opposite her and shook his head. “Why didn’t you tell me about this? It’s hardly professional to perform one’s duties as a serving detective looking as though you’ve gone ten rounds with Manny Pacquiao. What sort of image of the Norfolk Constabulary does that portray?”

“Accidents occur, sir. There was little I could do about dodging a suspect’s fist this time. I did try,” she stated, skirting the truth.

“Nevertheless, you should have informed me. Wait a minute… one eye, you said—how did the other eye get blackened then?”

Sally glanced out at the blue sky and sighed. “The other was a deliberate act by my ex-hubby.”

“Why? No, on second thoughts, I don’t want to get involved in that. I will say one thing; if any of my officers turn up looking the way you do, I should be informed about it immediately. What if the super had spoken to me about it? Can you imagine how foolish I would have felt not knowing what he was referring to?”

“I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t really think about that. I was too busy nursing my wounds, and my ego, for that matter.”

“Why on earth didn’t you ring in sick? At least for a day or two until the swelling abated?”

“You know me—or you should do by now. As long as my legs will carry me, I’ll always report for duty.”

“I’ll give you that. You’re like every other woman I have the misfortune of knowing—stubborn. Talking of the super, he’s hounding me for a conclusion on this case. He also wanted to know why there has been a significant lack of media attention?”

“Until now, sir, we haven’t had a lot to go on. I felt it was better to refrain from informing the media until we had something positive to announce. I was about to make an appeal when the DNA evidence pointed us in Dorling’s direction, and now this. Right from when we picked him up, I’ve had doubts about his guilt.”