Chloe stood in the incident room studying the array of photographs pinned to the evidence board. What had started as a small collection had turned into a gallery of faces: Keira North, Leah Cross, Tom Stoddard, Jamie Bateman, Leighton Matthews, Amy Barker. Undoubtedly their current cases were interlinked in some way or another, yet the more faces that came to adorn this board, the further Chloe felt herself getting from the truth.

Then there were the other people who had attended the party that night at the house on Railway Terrace; the ones they knew about, at least. Countless other people were likely to have been in and out of the house that evening, and locating them all had proven an impossible task. Chloe wondered how many more names and faces would be added to the collection before they finally got to the truth of what had happened that night.

The lines and notes that had been drawn between images had expanded into a scrawling web of possibilities. Tom’s name was connected to Amy Barker, with a tentative second line joining them both to Leah Cross added later.

They needed to find Leah urgently. The fact that she had fled the hospital and seemingly not let anyone know of her whereabouts suggested she was guilty of something. Did she know what had happened to Tom? Had she killed him?

Tracing Leah’s mobile had only led them back to the house in Treforest, where it had been found by uniform in her room. That meant she had returned to the house sometime between leaving the hospital and Tom’s body being found by Jamie the following morning. From whichever angle they looked at things, Leah looked increasingly like a suspect. Wherever she was now, she was either without a phone or she had access to another.

‘Everything OK? You look a bit lost there.’

Chloe turned. Dan was standing behind her, a handful of papers clutched in his fist.

‘Lost in thought,’ she told him. ‘What have you got there?’

‘Leah Cross’s bank account details.’

‘Anything?’

Dan pulled a chair across and sat down. Chloe did the same. He spread the paperwork out on the desk in front of them. ‘No recent transactions to give us a clue as to where she might be, but take a look at this.’ He pointed to a figure on the statement. ‘Two thousand pounds transferred to Leah’s account from an account in Leighton Matthews’ name. And that’s not the only one. They go back as far as February last year … a total of twelve thousand pounds.’

Chloe sat back. She needed to get hold of Alex and let her know the latest. No wonder Leah hadn’t wanted them to catch up with her. First the possible drug dealing, now this. No wonder the girl told so many lies. She had plenty she needed to try to conceal.

‘So Leah enrols at the university knowing Leighton works there,’ Chloe said, her thoughts spilling from her mouth as her brain went into overdrive, ‘and knowing he’s her father. She tells him who she is and … what? He gives her money to make up for all the time he’s missed?’

Dan raised a sceptical eyebrow.

‘OK. She blackmails him. He pays her to keep quiet, presumably to save his marriage.’

Dan nodded. ‘Sounds more likely. Clever girl.’

‘Devious girl.’ Chloe leaned forward, rested her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands and sighed. ‘Alex said something last night about Leighton covering for someone else. That’s why she let him leave here without charging him.’

‘For Melissa?’

‘She didn’t really say any more about it, but yeah, Melissa.’

‘Makes sense, I suppose. I wish she’d said something earlier, though – there’s been no end of speculation knocking about this place today. I don’t think the super was too happy about Leighton walking out of here, although he seems to have eased off a bit now he’s heard the news about Alex’s mother.’

‘I trust Alex,’ Chloe said. ‘Whatever decisions she’s made, she’ll have done so for good reason.’

‘So Melissa finds out about Leah,’ Dan said, ‘maybe through this?’ He gestured to Leah’s bank details. ‘Perhaps she found evidence of these transactions and confronted him about it. Do you reckon she knows Leah’s his daughter, though?’

Chloe shook her head. ‘It’d be entirely plausible that she found out about the money and believed the same as we did – that Leighton was having an affair with Leah. Maybe she questioned him about it and he had no choice but to tell her he was being blackmailed. Better to say she was his lover rather than admit she’s his daughter. Maybe he thought Melissa would forgive him yet another affair.’

‘So Melissa finds out where Leah lives and goes to the house in Treforest to confront her?’

Chloe exhaled loudly, her thoughts colliding as she tried to make sense of every possible scenario. ‘Perhaps,’ she said. ‘But I just don’t see where Tom comes into any of this.’

Her attention was caught by the images on the evidence board: Leah Cross and Keira North pinned alongside one another.

‘There’s something else,’ she said, getting up and gesturing to the two girls’ faces. Something had been bothering her all day and she’d been unable to shake it off. The more she went over it, the more it made sense. She studied the images of the two girls for a moment before turning her attention back to Dan.

‘Notice anything?’