Alex sat at the computer in her office and studied the post-mortem report that Helen Collier had sent over that afternoon. As Helen had anticipated at the murder scene, Tom Stoddard had received three stab wounds: one to the right kidney, a second to the chest, a third that had pierced his left lung. According to Helen, the first was likely to have been deliberately placed and used to debilitate him. The attack would have been incredibly painful, to the extent that it might have rendered him unable to cry for help.

Helen had concluded in her report that Tom was likely to have died of his injuries within minutes of the final stab wound being inflicted. There had been no attempt made to remove the knife from his chest.

The door to the office opened, and Chloe came in carrying a cup of coffee. She placed it on the desk in front of Alex. ‘How did this morning go?’

‘Other than the impromptu arrival of Jamie Bateman? He’s the father of Keira’s baby.’ She gestured to the coffee. ‘Thanks.’

‘But he didn’t think to mention it earlier?’

Alex reached for the coffee and took a sip. ‘He said he knew it would make him look suspicious.’

‘Well he looks a whole load more suspicious now,’ Chloe said, pulling up a chair and sitting beside Alex.

‘Look,’ Alex said, gesturing to the computer monitor. ‘Post-mortem results on Tom Stoddard.’ She sat back and gave Chloe a few minutes to read the key details.

‘Fingerprints are going to prove useless,’ Chloe said, sitting back once she was done.

‘Exactly what I’d already thought. There were countless prints lifted from that kitchen. If things had been done properly that bloody Sunday …’ She let her words drift. Being angry about the multitude of errors made on the night of Keira’s death wasn’t going to alter the situation they now found themselves in. ‘There were no prints on the knife, so whoever did this, it was planned. The pattern of the stab wounds suggests the same.’

‘Did he know his killer, do you think?’

Alex sighed. ‘Not enough evidence to suggest either way. Tom was at the kitchen door when he was stabbed, his back to his killer. He was either about to go out into the yard, or he’d just come in and had his back turned to lock the door. He turned to whoever attacked him and then received the second stab wound. The third and final wound was at an angle that suggests he had already slumped to the floor by that point. Look,’ she said, referring to one of the images attached along with the report. ‘Sorry,’ she added, noting Chloe’s response to the close-up of Tom Stoddard’s punctured chest. ‘Never gets any easier, does it?’ She minimised the image. ‘He didn’t seem to put up any sort of fight. Perhaps the stab wound to the kidney had rendered him unable to retaliate. Either that, or he saw his attacker and the initial shock delayed any fight he might have put up against her.’

‘Her?’ Chloe said, turning in her seat. ‘Leah, you mean?’

Alex raised an eyebrow. ‘We know she went back to that house. Her phone was there, when the previous day she’d had it at the hospital with her – we know that because officers had tried to find a next-of-kin contact number on it. Where is she now? If she didn’t do this, why didn’t she raise the alarm when she found Tom’s body?’ She took another sip of her coffee. ‘Anything useful come in since we went public with her image?’

Chloe shook her head. ‘We’ve had the usual might-have-beens, but other than that, nothing.’ She returned her focus to the report on the computer screen. ‘I thought Jamie told you on his way to the station that he didn’t recognise that knife, though? He said it hadn’t come from the house.’

‘She could have bought it between leaving the hospital and returning to the house. She didn’t even have to buy it – she may have stolen it. I tell you something,’ Alex said, returning her coffee mug to the desk. ‘I don’t think anything you could tell me about Leah Cross would surprise me any more. We need to find out which shops stock this particular make of knife. If it was bought and we can find out from where, perhaps we can identify her that way.’

‘What do you make of the bruising to the knuckles on Tom’s right hand, then?’

‘Obviously not self-defence – the pathologist reckons it’s a few days old. It suggests a fight, but with who is anyone’s guess.’

The two women fell silent, both lost in their own thoughts. Whether or not Leah Cross had physically inflicted those fatal stabs wounds, Alex was convinced that the girl was in some way or another responsible for Tom Stoddard’s death. They just had to find a way to prove it.