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elevated position. The destruction stretched for about three hundred yards along the westbound carriageway. Beyond that, there was a queue of stationary vehicles reaching into the distance.
    Scores of cars, lorries and vans had collided. Smoke was still rising from some of the wrecks. Temple counted five lorries. Two of them had overturned and one had been gutted by a fire. He also saw a coach which had come to rest across two lanes and three cars had ploughed into it. He tried to imagine what it would have been like for the drivers. Most of them would have been on their way home from work. The majority would have been driving at around 70mph and it was likely that some had been tailgating.
    The cars driven by the gunshot victims would have slewed out of control in an instant, causing the drivers behind them to stamp on their brakes. Multiple collisions would have been unavoidable. In the blink of an eye dozens of cars had concertinaed into each other with devastating consequences.
    Temple took out his mobile and called Mike Beresford. The Chief Super had already been given the news that two drivers had been shot dead.
    ‘It’s unbelievable,’ he said. ‘This is going to put the fear of God into anyone who uses the motorways.’
    ‘Have the media got wind of it yet?’ Temple asked.
    ‘No, but they soon will. The pile-up itself is topping all the news bulletins. This is not something we can hold back.’
    ‘We need to shut down the areas either side of the motorway along this section,’ Temple said. ‘Set up road blocks and draft in the specialist search unit.’
    ‘I’ll organize it,’ Beresford said. ‘But what’s your gut feeling? Could this be a terrorist attack?’
    ‘I’m not sure,’ Temple said. ‘It’s not your typical terrorist MO. If I were you I’d alert the Anti-Terrorism Command in London anyway just in case they feel the need to muscle in.’
    ‘The Chief Constable has already done that. They’re sending a man down tonight to monitor developments.’
    Temple said he would keep Beresford up to date and cancelled the call. As he walked back down the embankment, he struggled to order his thoughts. In all his years as a detective he had never felt so overwhelmed by a case – never had to attend a crime scene quite like this one.
    It was going to take many hours to clear the backed-up traffic and to examine the gunshot victims and their cars thoroughly. Then the Highways Agency would have to arrange for the wreckages to be removed and the road surface to be repaired.
    Temple pushed his fingers through his hair and drew in a heavy breath, bracing himself for a long and difficult night. He stepped back on to the hard shoulder and paused to look around. Two fire officers rushed past him. He watched as they joined several others who were struggling to put out a fire that had reared up suddenly in the engine compartment of an overturned van.
    His attention was then drawn to a car a few yards away which was a real mess. There was no one inside and he wondered whether the driver was one of those who’d been killed or seriously injured. The back end of the car was compressed by a couple of feet and the front offside wing was crushed, exposing the engine. The windscreen had gone and one of the rear wheels was missing. Then he noticed the front number plate which was hanging loose.
    HYO4 XGA.
    His breath caught in his throat as a memory snapped into place.
No, it couldn’t be,
he told himself.
It’s not possible.
    He rushed forward for a closer look. The car was a red Peugeot 307 with grey leather upholstery.
    Oh God.
    Panic swirled through his head as he realized that he knew this car as well as he knew his own.
    It was Angel’s car.
    And it was probably her blood that he could see splattered over the front seat.

CHAPTER 4
    T EMPLE COULDN’T MOVE. It was as though his muscles had seized up. But his thoughts spun wildly and a rush of adrenaline made his body tingle. He told himself that the wrecked