There was the rustle of paper down the phone. ‘Harassment, wrongful arrest, deprived of basic human rights whilst in custody, loss of earnings and emotional distress. ’

‘Okay,’ said Phil, ‘let’s go through these. Can I do that? Or will it prejudice the case?’

‘Feel free.’

‘Okay. Harassment. Brotherton’s name came up several times in a murder inquiry. We went to see him at work, and when he attacked my DS, we brought him in for questioning. He was never arrested.’

‘He attacked your . . .? You allege he attacked your DS?’

‘Dropped a ton of metal on him. Or would have done if he hadn’t got out of the way in time. No “allege” about it. Didn’t he mention it?’

Silence. Linda Curran clearly hadn’t been informed of the circumstances. ‘And that’s the attempted murder?’

‘It is in my book. What about this basic human rights thing? When did that happen?’

‘In custody.You denied him access to a solicitor.’

‘News to me. Warnock’d been called but was unavailable. You were on your way; we were just . . . chatting till you arrived. What was the next one?’

‘Loss of earnings.’

‘Blaming me for the credit crunch now, is he? And emotional distress.’

‘Apparently his girlfriend has left him.’

‘Good for her. Let’s hope she finds someone who doesn’t want to use her for target practice. Is that it?’

Another rustle of paper. ‘Yep. That’s everything.’

‘Right,’ said Phil, a weary smile on his face. It was all just part of the game. He sighed. ‘Well, thanks again, Linda. Always nice to talk to you.’

‘You too, Phil.’

‘I wouldn’t want to do your job.’

She gave a small laugh. ‘And I wouldn’t want to do yours. Let’s catch up sometime.’ She hung up.

‘Or let’s not,’ he said to the dead line, putting the phone down. They had once gone out on a date. One of his least successful ones. And that was saying something. She must just be saying that out of politeness, he thought.

He leaned back in his chair, stretched. That was all he needed. Brotherton making trouble. He wasn’t worried, though. He could make it go away. It was just extra hassle he didn’t need, something to divert his time and energy.

He drained the last of his coffee, threw the paper cup in the bin. He had driven Marina in to work, then gone off to get takeaway coffee from a nearby sandwich shop. That way, he thought, it wouldn’t look like they were arriving together. Phil imagined, once again, all eyes on them as they entered the building. Questioning, knowing. That was one of the reasons he had gone out again. In reality, no one paid them the slightest bit of attention. Still, he couldn’t think about that now. Not with a briefing for the whole team in less than five minutes.

He gathered up his papers, made his way to the door.

‘Ben Fenwick sends his apologies,’ said Phil, sitting down

Marina fought the urge to smile smugly.

‘Over to you.’ He gestured to Marina. She nodded, looked round. Phil, Anni, the Birdies, herself. The core members of the team. Phil was trying his best to pretend he wasn’t watching her with more than professional interest. She tried not to look at him too much.

‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘Right. We know it’s not Brotherton. If the profile didn’t help, the last murder did. I’ve had a look at Caroline Eades’ murder and tried to fit it in with the others. And there are some interesting developments. Not to say worrying ones.’

She looked down at her notes, back to the room.

‘Serial killers usually work to a routine. And yes, we’re using the phrase serial killer now. I don’t think there’s any doubt. They usually follow a pattern. Same type of victim, some method of death, same type of location. But with this killer, there have been some striking deviations. I don’t know if they’re significant; I think they may be.’

She felt a twinge of pain in her stomach, automatically pressed her hand on it. She noticed Phil watching her.

‘Right,’ she said, ‘the first time a serial killer kills - or at least the first time we hear about it; there will have been other incidents before this - they usually kill in an area of geographical significance. It could be where they live, work, where they lost their virginity, whatever. So far, we haven’t found anything significant about the first murder.’

‘But we’re still working on it,’ said Phil. ‘Every new case that comes in, we match against it.’

‘Good. But I don’t think the location is significant in this killer’s case. There’s something more important to him than that. Each murder has presented an escalation. With Lisa King, the baby was killed too. Susie Evans, the baby was beside the body. Claire Fielding, the baby was missing. Same with Caroline Eades. But the timing is also significant with the latest one.’

‘Why?’ said Anni.

‘Because serial killers don’t just enjoy killing, they enjoy having killed. They usually take a trophy or two from the scene, take it back to their lair and . . .’ She shrugged. ‘Well, I’ll leave that to your imagination.’

Everyone’s face registered disgust.

‘But that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Which would suggest that he’s differently motivated.’

‘Bit of an understatement,’ said Adrian.

‘Indeed. But even amongst the noble brethren of serial killers, he’s different. For most serial killers, the primary motivation is usually sexual. I don’t think that’s the case here. He wants the babies. He doesn’t care how he gets them. The women are nothing.’

She turned to the whiteboard behind her, took out a marker pen. Started making notes. ‘So this is what we’ve got. Different locations, different victims. The only thing they have in common is pregnancy.’

‘And some kind of link to Brotherton,’ said Phil.

‘All except Caroline Eades,’ said Marina.

‘At the moment,’ said Anni.

‘Too many links, though,’ said Phil, ‘and I don’t believe in that many coincidences. Maybe someone’s trying to set Brotherton up? Shift the blame? Draw our attention, misdirect us, make us look at him to avoid looking at the real killer . . .’ He put his hands behind his head, frowned. ‘But that would have taken a huge amount of planning.’

‘True. Next thing, escalation. Caroline Eades’ death looked improvised. He didn’t have time to restrain her properly, so he used whatever was at hand. And used it very crudely. Which leads me to believe that the baby he took from Claire Fielding is dead. He wanted this one as a replacement.’

‘You sure about that?’ asked Anni.

‘As sure as I can be, given what I saw last night.’

‘What about this baby?’ said Phil. ‘Is it alive?’

‘I’ve spoken to Nick Lines,’ said Jane Gosling. ‘And he says that judging by the health of the mother and how far gone she was, plus looking at the way the baby was cut out - and he’s getting better at that, apparently - there’s every possibility that it is.’

‘Let’s hope so,’ said Marina. ‘So let’s assume that it is. But there’s something else, as well. A question of gender. Normally, serial killers are male.’

‘This big woman thing again,’ said Adrian. ‘But we’ve got a picture, CCTV. Millhouse has got the techies working overtime on it, but it’s still not sharp enough. And we don’t want to rush it. Might get the wrong person.’

‘It could be a woman,’ said Marina. ‘Or it could be a man and a woman working together.’

‘Or a man providing for a woman,’ said Phil.

‘Exactly,’ said Marina. ‘Now, there are usually two kinds of serial killers. Psychopathic and sociopathic. The psychopaths are wild. They prey on victims, don’t care if they get caught. Sociopaths are harder to find. They can blend into society, hold down jobs, lead normal lives. Then one day something goes. And they have to feed their desires.’

‘Will they have a job?’ asked Anni.

‘They might do,’ Marina said, ‘but it won’t be anything prestigious. They won’t be head of Microsoft or anything like that. They can use a knife. Maybe slaughter animals? Farm worker? Abattoir? Something along those lines. Also the disregard for the victim. Just another piece of meat.’