Lucy walked into the CSI office and smiled at Amanda. Jack was on the phone barking at someone on the other end. She was glad it wasn’t her on the receiver.

‘Where’s the new boy?’

‘Day off. Why?’

‘I just wondered. He’s been lucky, hasn’t he? A day off already?’

‘He has, but I can’t complain. He worked really hard last night booking in all the evidence. God knows what time he left. But I’m not going to be as mean to him from now on because I thought he’d have left it all for me and he didn’t.’

‘He’s a bit odd, though, isn’t he? He doesn’t talk much.’

Amanda laughed. ‘I know why he doesn’t talk to you much – that’s because you scare him. Although he was asking lots of questions about you, so you might have yourself a new admirer.’

Lucy’s eyes widened in horror.

‘Christ, I hope not. He’s only a kid; the last thing I want is to get into a relationship with someone young enough to date my daughter.’

‘Toy boy – why not? It could be fun.’

‘Or it could be a flipping disaster, more like.’

‘Anyway, enough about Toby: have you seen the new DCI? Of course you have, but you know what I mean. I’ve been smitten ever since I set eyes on him. It’s like my ultimate fantasy has been brought to life and walked into the station.’

Shocked, Lucy glanced at Amanda’s husband Jack to see if he could hear what she was saying. He couldn’t because he was still growling down the phone at whoever it was that was unlucky enough to have answered his call.

‘What did you want Toby for?’

‘I was just going to see if he was okay. I felt a bit sorry for him, to be honest. He’s only been here a couple of days and he’s had four murders to cope with. It’s hard enough for us and we’ve been doing this a long time. I just wanted to let him know about the counselling sessions he’s entitled to.’

‘Lucy, what’s happening to you? That’s really sweet.’

‘I’m going before Jack bites my head off. You’d better be nice to him because he looks stressed.’

‘Nah, he’s always like this.’

Lucy turned and walked out, back to the incident room. She perched on the edge of a desk and stared at the pictures. Melanie and Stacey were both lone women out having a good time. She turned her gaze to the Martins. A family at home in bed, except for Craig, who had been working late. She squeezed her eyes shut; her fingers began to rub the sides of her head. Massaging her temples, she tried to release some of the pressure. On paper all of them were different, but her gut was telling her that the two women were connected. So where did the Martins fit in? Why them? What purpose did it serve to take out an entire family? How likely was it that they had two different killers in Brooklyn Bay? She wasn’t convinced that they did, but unless they had some forensic evidence to link all three cases no one would believe her because of the differences between them.

She realised that there was no whiteboard for the body that had been found in the woods. Why? That victim deserved the same as everyone else; she’d been there for a long time, but she still needed justice. She turned to go and ask Patrick where he was with his enquiries. Anger bubbled inside her chest at the thought that he wasn’t taking the case seriously.

Mattie came out of the gents and, sensing that something was about to go down, he strode towards Lucy. He grabbed her arm and led her away from the corridor where Patrick was watching them both through the glass windows of Tom’s office.

‘What’s up, Lucy? You keep acting weird, and why’s the new boy always eyeballing you? Don’t turn around; he’ll know we’re talking about him. I don’t like him.’

‘Am I acting weird?’

‘A bit. Have you and him had a spat already?’

She shook her head. ‘Not yet, although I was just on my way to give him a piece of my mind. He’s useless.’

‘Come on, let’s get out of here – you can buy me a coffee before we go to the hospital and tell me what’s going on.’

She didn’t know if there was anything she could tell him; she didn’t have anything yet to tie all the cases together. However, coffee sounded like a good idea and it would be nice to get out of the station and give her brain some breathing space, a chance to get back to normal.