BEFORE HE DROVE UP to York to interview the providers of Nigel’s alibis, Rafferty called the team together in the Incident Room. He looked round at the assembled faces: DC Jonathon Lilley, intelligent and studying hard for his sergeant’s exams; PCs Lizzie Green, much the same age as the two dead girls and keen as Lilley to find their murderer and Timothy Smales, still wet behind the ears but now a little older and wiser after getting a few more investigations under his belt, Hanks, DS Mary Carmody and the rest. All were anticipating an announcement that Nigel Blythe was well and truly in the frame and all they had to do was prove his guilt.
Careful to position himself far from the board bearing the witnesses’ photo fit descriptions of ‘Nigel Blythe’, Rafferty took a deep breath, crossed h
