DC Daniel Mason’s desk was its usual orderly self, although a small stack of paper cups had formed at the side of his computer; the remnants of the caffeine-fuelled hours that had enabled him to sit through seemingly endless footage from the club in which Amy Barker had collapsed. Nightclub footage was always tricky to analyse, with the bright lights causing distortion and making it difficult to distinguish individual faces. He had been given the description Jade Richards had supplied, although it could have matched countless faces. There was nothing to make it individual in any way – no scars or tattoos that would have been unique to the man who had sold Amy the drugs. The only decent footage of Amy he’d been able to find didn’t include anyone other than her friend Jade and countless nameless fellow partygoers. He wasn’t sure whether it would be enough.

Chloe pulled up a chair alongside him. The footage was paused on a dark corner, half a female just in view towards the left edge of the shot.

‘There’s a fire exit here,’ Dan told her, gesturing to the screen. ‘It’s just past the toilets at the back of the ground floor. Watch.’

He pressed the recording. The girl in the shot moved fully into the picture, gripping the arm of another girl.

‘Amy and Jade?’ Chloe confirmed.

Dan nodded. They watched as the two girls shared a brief exchange, one seeming to push the other closer to the fire exit. Then one of the girls – it was difficult to determine which, but from the lighter shade of hair Chloe assumed it was Amy – opened the fire exit door and disappeared from view.

It matched with the version of events provided by Jade.

No wonder the girl had run from police, Chloe thought. Jade was dealing with a guilty conscience: she had encouraged her friend to go outside to buy the drugs and had then watched her take them, too scared – or too clever, perhaps – to do it herself. She hadn’t been prepared to take the risk of buying or taking, yet she had been ready to watch Amy suffer whatever consequences might befall her in doing so.

Amy re-entered the club and reappeared within the footage, visibly passing something to her waiting friend. She closed the fire door behind her and they left the shot.

‘They went into the toilets,’ Chloe explained. ‘Amy thought Jade had taken hers, so she did the same.’ She shook her head. ‘Some friend. Any footage from outside the club?’

Dan shook his head. ‘There’s a camera at the door that picks people up as they’re being security-checked, but by the time the girls got there, they must have already met this mystery bloke. Nothing.’

‘What about Keira North? Find anything else in the emails?’

Dan tapped a pile of paperwork on the desk. ‘Not the emails, but the phone records are a bit more interesting. This is what’s been keeping me really busy,’ he said. ‘Alex might want to get our friend Tom Stoddard back in for another chat.’

‘Yeah? How come?’

Dan flipped through the top few sheets of paperwork and retrieved a couple that were now strewn with highlighter markings. ‘Read this,’ he said. ‘Looks like we may have found the father of Keira’s baby.’

---

Chloe brought Alex up to speed on the exchange of text messages as they headed in Alex’s Audi to the student house in Treforest. The messages had been sent between Keira’s mobile number and Tom’s six weeks earlier, just a few weeks before Keira had died.

‘Don’t tell anyone about last night,’ she read.

‘Is that Keira or Tom?’

‘Keira. Tom then asked, Are you ashamed of me? Wink emoji to end. There’s quite a gap until her response. I just don’t want anyone to know.’

‘What did he say to that?’

‘OK. Dirty secrets are always the best kind. To which she replied, I’m serious. Please.’

Alex rolled her eyes. ‘He’s a charmer, isn’t he?’ She shook her head. ‘I don’t know … sounds like a one-night stand to me. Keira was already nearly four months pregnant by this point. Doesn’t prove anything, does it? If anything, it makes it even less likely that Tom’s the baby’s father and therefore even less likely that he was the one who pushed her from that roof.’ She sighed. ‘Too many people claim to have seen him downstairs when Keira fell.’

‘Doesn’t mean he wasn’t responsible.’

‘How do you mean?’

Chloe shrugged. ‘Might have got someone else to do his dirty work for him.’

Alex managed a smile. ‘You and Scott are watching too many box sets.’

Chloe grinned. ‘There’s something else, though. A few days before Keira died, Tom sent her this. Promise you won’t tell anyone. I just need a bit more time to sort myself out.’

‘Weird choice of phrasing,’ Alex said, slowing for a set of traffic lights. ‘What’s he referring to there? Won’t tell anyone about what? Was there a reply from Keira?’

‘No. Perhaps whatever it was, the conversation about it continued on the night she died. Maybe that’s what they were heard arguing about.’

‘He’s definitely lied to us,’ Alex said. ‘I think where Tom Stoddard’s concerned it might be a default setting.’

She pulled up outside the terraced house and the two women got out of the car. The front door was already open. As they approached, they heard shouting coming from inside the house, a male and female engrossed in a bitter exchange.

‘You need to calm down,’ the female voice could be heard yelling.

‘Since when did you get to dictate?’ the male voice shouted back. ‘You don’t tell me what to do. No one tells me what to do.’

The sound of Tom’s anger was easily recognisable. He seemed to be making a habit of arguing with everyone he came into contact with.

Alex stuck out a foot and pushed the door further open. A large sports bag rested just inside. She pressed the doorbell, bringing the shouting to an abrupt end. Tom Stoddard appeared at the end of the hallway, his angry red face falling when he saw Alex and Chloe there.

‘Going somewhere?’ Alex asked, gesturing to the bag.

Tom sighed, his eyes rolling up to the ceiling then staying there so he wouldn’t have to make eye contact with either detective.

‘You’re going to have to delay your trip, I’m afraid.’

Behind her, Alex felt Chloe’s fingers press gently into her lower spine. She turned to her and Chloe nodded in Tom’s direction, gesturing to his feet. Alex looked back and glanced down at the trainers Tom was wearing. It took a moment before she realised what Chloe was referring to and where her thoughts had taken her.

She remembered Jade Richards’ statement.

They had wanted to talk to him about Keira, but it seemed that was not all they needed to discuss with Tom Stoddard.