No one had thought they would be seeing Alex that day, so her arrival at the station later that morning was unexpected. News of her mother’s death had quickly spread among the team, with speculation as to who would head up the current cases when she was on leave. Chloe didn’t bother to correct them by suggesting that Alex was unlikely to take any time off work. She suspected her colleague wouldn’t be going anywhere.

‘You sure this is a good idea?’ she asked Alex as the team began to filter into the incident room.

‘Yes. I need updating on what I’ve missed.’

Chloe held her gaze for a moment. ‘How are you?’ she asked.

‘Fine.’

‘I’m so sorry, Alex.’

Alex glanced over Chloe’s shoulder and asked the team to assemble as quickly as possible. A couple of people had already left for the day, so she now clearly felt a pressing sense of urgency to speak with those who were still present.

Chloe moved away and sat down. Perhaps Alex would speak to her about it later, without the prying eyes and ears of others.

Perhaps not.

‘I know a lot of you will be wondering why Leighton Matthews was allowed to leave here yesterday without being charged,’ Alex said, addressing the team, ‘especially in light of the CCTV footage that places his car in a nearby location just minutes after Leah Cross was hit. You’ve probably all heard by now that Matthews gave us quite a revelation last night, although it wasn’t the admission we’d all been expecting. He told us that Leah Cross is his daughter.’

There was an outbreak of chatter among the team at this point. Everyone had known about this, but the unlikelihood of the relationship meant it was still causing shock waves. Alex raised a hand and tried to bring some sense of order back to the meeting.

‘We know the car was in the area,’ she continued, ‘but Leighton Matthews’ little trip to the garage the morning after the hit-and-run means that any chance of retrieving physical evidence from the car has been removed. If anyone’s car needs valeting any time in the near future, I’d suggest Lockley’s on Western Avenue – they’re bloody thorough.’

Chloe watched Alex intently, noting the tightening of her jaw and the increasing speed of her speech.

‘Just because the car was there doesn’t mean Leighton Matthews necessarily was. I don’t think he was driving that car. I don’t think he was even there that night. I think he’s been lying to protect someone.’

‘Who?’ DC Jake Sullivan asked.

‘His wife,’ Chloe answered, meeting Alex’s eye.

Alex gave her a nod. ‘At the moment, they’re each other’s alibis. They both claim to have been in bed together, from ten thirty onwards on Wednesday night. My guess is this: Melissa Matthews assumed the same as the rest of us, that Leighton was having an affair with Leah Cross. Remember that this woman has already endured quite a bit in that marriage. Sexual harassment allegations against her husband, his affair with a former student … and they’re just the things we’re aware of. So let’s assume she found out about Leah somehow. This is the final straw; it tips her over the edge. She takes his car, waits for Leah to come home and hits her with it. When she goes home, Leighton realises what she’s done and takes the car first thing the following morning to be valeted. We turn up and he has a choice: let his wife shoulder responsibility for what she’s done, or take the blame for her. He’s already put her through enough; taking the blame might mean trying to compensate for some of the previous damage he’s caused her.’

Chloe watched Alex with growing concern. Her words were falling from her mouth so quickly that each was tumbling into the next, as though her voice was desperately trying to keep up with the movement of her brain. She shouldn’t have been there.

And yet everything she said made perfect sense.

‘That’s why I didn’t want him charged,’ Alex continued. ‘We’d have been charging the wrong person. This way, he knows we’re still suspicious. He’ll know we don’t believe his admission. If we keep applying the pressure, the cracks will start to show somewhere. Has anyone been to see Amy Barker yet?’

‘Chloe and I went,’ said Dan.

‘How is she?’

‘Physically OK, but she seemed very embarrassed at what’s happened.’

‘Did she ID Tom Stoddard?’

Dan shot Chloe a glance.

‘No,’ Chloe said. ‘She recognised Tom – she said the same as Jade, that they’d spoken to him outside in the queue before going into the club – but Amy said he’s not the one who sold her the drugs. Apparently, it was a female. Take one guess who she did positively ID, though.’

Alex’s eyes widened, her mouth thinning into a tight line. ‘Right,’ she said, trying to process this new information. She ran a hand through her hair, getting it caught in a knotting tangle at the back of her head. ‘You showed her a photo of Leah Cross?’

‘Yep,’ Dan said. ‘Identified her straight away. No wonder she’s gone AWOL. We’ve been trying to locate Leah this afternoon. Her phone was traced back to the house in Treforest – looks as though she left it there when she went back for her things. If she’s involved in the dealing as Tom claimed, chances are she’s got a second phone we know nothing about. I’ve checked with her bank to see if she’s made any transactions in the past couple of days, in case we could trace her whereabouts that way.’

‘And?’

‘Her account’s not been used for nearly a fortnight, other than for standing orders.’

Alex grimaced. ‘Where does Tom fit into all this?’ she wondered aloud. ‘We’ve not had the post-mortem results back yet. I’ll give the pathologist a call, see what’s taking so long.’

‘There was something else, though,’ Dan told her. ‘The unusually large amount of money in her bank account … a substantial amount of it has been transferred from accounts in Leighton Matthews’ name.’

Alex’s eyes widened once again. ‘OK,’ she said with a sigh. ‘So what are we thinking? Blackmail?’

There were several nods in agreement.

‘Leah turns up and announces she’s Leighton’s daughter,’ Chloe said. ‘She offers to stay quiet in return for money. Plus, if she’s involved in the drug dealing – which we now have increasing reason to believe she is – she’s been making extras that way.’

‘Quite the little entrepreneur.’ Alex glanced at the clock. ‘It’s Keira North’s funeral this afternoon. I’ll be going. I’d like the rest of you to keep looking for Leah Cross, please – we need to make this a priority. Let’s go public with her image now – let the public know we’re looking for her. Dan, Chloe, I’d like you both to speak with Melissa Matthews first thing. Let’s see if we can get a confession from her.’

Chloe gave her a nod. ‘How do you think Keira North fits into all this?’

‘I still think she discovered something she wasn’t supposed to. Before last night, it seemed likely she’d found out about an affair between Leah and Leighton and someone pushed her to keep her quiet. Perhaps it’s still the case that she found out about the relationship between them, only not the relationship we’d originally assumed. Maybe not, though. Maybe she’d found out something to do with the drugs. Knowing what we now know about Leah, we know she can’t be trusted. If she didn’t have several witnesses to place her outside the building when Keira was pushed from the roof, I’d have her down as a main suspect.’

Chloe looked past Alex to the photographs of the two young women pinned side by side on the evidence board behind her. Keira. Leah.

‘There’s something else,’ she said. She gestured to the board. Alex turned to study the gallery of faces. Chloe stood from her chair and joined her at the front of the group. ‘Look,’ she said, tracing a finger between the two girls. ‘We asked Amy Barker to give a description of the woman who sold her the drugs at the club. The description she gave us fitted Leah Cross, but it could equally have described countless other girls her age.’ She tapped her finger on the image of Keira North. ‘It could have been a description of Keira.’

Alex met her eye.

‘So what if Keira’s death was an accident?’ Chloe continued. ‘Not in the sense that she fell, but in the sense that someone made a mistake? From behind, they wouldn’t look dissimilar. I reckon someone pushed Keira from that roof thinking she was Leah.’