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‘When PC Callaghan was . . . close to me, the other man came out of the trees. He came charging out suddenly, from behind, you know? Callaghan heard the noise and turned round, but it was too late, because the bloke already had the knife in his hand.’ She swallowed hard and began to tremble a little, staring past Thorne and Tanner, her gaze fixed on the wall behind them.

‘I would have started running then . . . I know I should have, but I couldn’t really move.

I just stood there and watched as he stabbed him and stabbed him and Callaghan was lying on the ground and he made this noise, like when someone’s gargling or whatever .

. . and then he wasn’t making any noise at all. ’

Thorne stared across at Emily Mead, remembering what he’d seen on the bodycam footage the day before.

Looking haggard and visibly distressed, she was no more than a shade of the young woman he’d watched on that screen, rising slowly from behind a tree, all bundled up in silver like she was a special surprise.

Cocky even, as she’d pulled off her cap and stepped towards Adam Callaghan. ‘What happened then?’ he asked.

She shook her head as though she still couldn’t quite believe it.

‘It was like he was waiting for me to say thank you or something. Well done , maybe. He just hung around, wiping his knife, and then he saw the look on my face and he was making out he was disappointed. Like, what was wrong with me? I got a bit hysterical and I just kept asking him what the hell that was, what he’d just done. ’

‘What did he say?’ Thorne waited, watching her fingers as they tapped against the table, the fingers bitten down to the quick. ‘Emily . . . ?’

‘He asked me if I was stupid and hadn’t I known that was the plan all along.

I told him no way did I think that was the plan and what made him think I’d ever be happy about him killing someone.

That was when he told me that he’d already killed three coppers.

That it might even be four, because one of them was in a coma.

He started talking about this one named Tully, who was the one he really had it in for, but I wasn’t paying much attention because by then I knew I had to get out of there.

I thought when I legged it that he’d try and stop me because of what I’d seen him do, but he didn’t seem all that bothered.

He just said “See you then” or something like that and carried on wiping the blood off his knife. ’

‘You said you didn’t know that was the plan,’ Thorne said. ‘To kill PC Callaghan.’

‘Of course I bloody didn’t.’

‘So what did you think the plan was?’

She blinked. ‘I didn’t—’

‘Why were you there at all?’

‘I just wanted . . . ’ She hesitated, her breathing quick and ragged. ‘I needed to . . . ’

‘What did you need?’

‘To confront him.’ She spat the word out, then immediately sank back into herself. She hunched slowly over in the chair and her voice dropped to a whisper. ‘I just wanted to confront him, that’s all.’

Thorne looked at Tanner, who picked up the cue, and when she asked the question, she spoke almost as softly as Emily Mead. ‘About what, Emily?’

They waited.

After a few seconds, Thorne repeated the question, and when it got no response he changed tack. ‘How did you and this man communicate with each other?’

‘It’s all done online,’ she said, eventually. ‘There’s this place he set up on the Dark Web where we can message.’

‘How do you know about all that stuff, about accessing those sites?’

‘Someone showed me,’ she said. ‘A drug dealer I used to know.’ She looked up at Thorne and there was a glimpse of defiance suddenly. ‘I went through a hard time a while back, OK?’

‘We don’t need to know about that stuff,’ Tanner said.

Thorne leaned forward. ‘Your description of events after PC Callaghan arrived in the park was very helpful,’ he said.

‘The circumstances of his death, I mean. Thank you. We’re well aware just how difficult that must have been.

’ The young woman was about to speak, but Thorne didn’t give her the chance.

‘Only it wasn’t straight after he arrived, not quite. ’

‘What do you mean? Callaghan came to the park and—’

‘Something happened before the man appeared with the knife, and I know that because I’ve seen it on PC Callaghan’s bodycam.’ Thorne let that sink in, but, despite his best efforts, the woman would not meet his eyes. ‘What that camera captured before he turned it off.’

‘Nothing happened.’

‘There was a moment between you and him.’

‘No.’

‘We saw it.’

‘I don’t know what you’re on about.’

‘There’s no reason to be scared,’ Tanner said.

‘I’m not scared.’

‘What did you think was funny?’ Thorne asked. ‘When he said you were unhurt.’

Emily Mead shook her head again.

‘You seemed to find that funny for some reason.’

She turned her head away and began to moan softly.

‘The plan was to confront PC Callaghan,’ Thorne said. ‘You just told us that, but you’d be helping us a great deal if you told us what you wanted to confront him about.’ Thorne and Tanner exchanged a glance while they waited. ‘You knew him, didn’t you, Emily?’

Now, she looked at him, and suddenly her eyes were filled with tears again.

She scrunched them closed, shaking her head more violently.

‘I just wanted him to put his hand up to it. To . . . confess.’ She could barely get the words out now, spluttering them as the snivels became sobs.

‘I wanted him to admit what he did and turn himself in.’

‘What did he do, Emily? You need to tell us.’

She raised an arm to wipe away the tears and snot on her sleeve, then brought both her arms up to cradle her head before they slid slowly down to cover her face and muffle the sound of her keening.

That was when Tanner spotted the small tattoo, delicately inked in red, blue and green on the inside of the young woman’s wrist.

A butterfly.

When she understood exactly why Adam Callaghan had turned off his bodycam.

She immediately spoke the words necessary to terminate the interview and, though Thorne would not understand why she’d done so until afterwards, he sat and watched her lean across the table towards Emily Mead and reach out her hand.

‘It’s OK,’ Tanner said. ‘I know what he did.’