Jacquie had walked into the foyer to be met with a scene from Dante’s Inferno. People were yelling, people were crying. There was a lot of posturing, strutting, arm throwing and general alpha male behaviour. She waited for a moment in the doorway and then resorted to response 7.1.1.a in the latest manual on Crowd Control.‘Oy!’ A simple enough sound, but at enough decibels it seemed to reach into the hind brain of most humans and shut them up, if only for a short while. Everyone turned to face her and she felt like telling them to line up in an orderly fashion, lines of policemen, Julie’s family, Leah’s family, all separately and not talking until the bell went. Instead, she used technique 7.1.1.b, which was to lower her voice so that they all had to keep quiet as they strained to hear.‘I am Detective Sergeant Carpenter,’ she said. ‘I am working on a case I think may be connected with the disappearance of these two girls. I think it would be best for everyone if we all calmed down and then I can assign rooms to the families and we can go from there.’ There were mutters of agreement, although not whole-hearted, and Jacquie turned to the desk sergeant.
