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pictures he wanted.
    Rory rifled through them. He was unfazed by the blood-stained bed, the saturated carpet, and blood-spattered ceiling. Towards the back of the pack he found the pictures of Jonathan he was looking for.
    Jonathan had been dressed like his father: white shirt, underwear but no trousers. They were caught by their attacker unawares. The pictures of the eleven-year-old showed him with a blank expression on his face. His hands were red with drying blood.
    ‘What do you make of this?’ He held up one of the photographs and waited while Matilda marked her place in the report with a Post-it note. She took the picture from him and studied it carefully.
    ‘What am I looking at?’
    ‘His hands.’
    ‘OK. Go on.’
    ‘Why are his hands covered in blood?’
    ‘Put yourself in his position, Rory; he’s just found his parents dead, he’s frightened. What does any small boy want when he’s frightened? His mum. He’ll have run over to her and tried to rouse her in some way. Of course his hands are going to be covered in their blood.’
    ‘Yes, fair enough. It wasn’t long after Stefan was killed before Miranda was killed. If Jonathan had gone into the bedroom then surely the killer was still in there too. Why didn’t the killer murder Jonathan as well as his parents?’
    Matilda frowned. ‘Maybe the killer’s gripe wasn’t with Jonathan. Maybe it was all about the parents.’
    ‘But Jonathan must have seen the killer if he’d gone into the room.’
    ‘Well, according to Jonathan’s aunt, his mother came up the stairs and saw Jonathan on the landing with blood on him. He’d obviously gone into the bedroom and come back out again.’ She thought for a moment and then continued. ‘Remember back to when you were a kid and you wanted your parents’ attention? You don’t just walk into the room and wait until you’re allowed to speak; you call for them on your way to the room don’t you?’
    ‘I suppose.’
    ‘So the killer heard him coming and hid in the en suite until he left. There’s a big difference between killing an adult and killing a child. The majority of convicted killers are appalled by crimes against children.’
    ‘Yes. That’s true. I suppose that’s why paedophiles are kept apart from everyone else in prison,’ he said. ‘Hang on a minute, Jonathan’s aunt said his mother came up the stairs and found Jonathan with blood on him?’
    ‘Yes. So?’
    ‘Where did you get that from?’
    Once again Matilda rifled through the mess of paperwork on her desk before she found the two-page document she was looking for. ‘A statement by Clara Harkness given in May 1995.’
    ‘That’s what, six months after the killings? Jonathan was living in Newcastle by then. So he was obviously talking.’
    ‘Obviously.’
    ‘Yet there’s still no statement from Jonathan Harkness. Why not?’
    Matilda had to admit that she had no idea why Jonathan was never interviewed. On the other hand, maybe he had given a statement and it had somehow disappeared from the archive over the years. As she looked around the room at the opened boxes of evidence, the stacks of files and packs of photographs, she wondered if she had really been given all the information the ACC had promised. Already the case was throwing up more questions than answers. She was surprised to find DC Fleming so articulate. Where had this sudden intelligence come from?
    Rory coughed. Matilda looked up and saw he was studying his watch. She turned back to her post-mortem report and was interrupted by a louder cough. Rory was still staring at his watch.
    ‘Is something the matter?’
    ‘Well, it’s just that…’ he seemed nervous and unable to make eye contact with his boss. ‘The thing is…the time.’
    Matilda looked at her own watch. It was just after 4.15. ‘What about the…oh. You’ve been told about my curfew?’
    ‘Yes, sorry.’
    ‘Don’t apologize; it’s not your fault. Thank you for reminding me. I’d hate to get a