The traffic was flowing better as Kate passed the exit for Andover. She’d have given anything for the blues and twos fitted to her Audi. Pushing the accelerator past eighty, she moved into the outside lane and ate up the road. The satnav said the pub was near Cadnam on the western side of the city, and Laura’s message had confirmed they would be meeting at half past seven. It was already after seven, and if she didn’t hurry, they could have been and gone before she arrived.

Identifying Steph Graham’s murderer had been a battle from the very beginning. When she’d first suggested that the same person was responsible for Roxie and Willow’s murders, she’d met with adversity. But she’d battled through it and set up her team to prove the theory. And then when Amy died, she had battled against the forces who wanted her out of the Met. In Southampton, she’d fought back again, proving how formidable her detective’s mind was. After fifteen months, she was now so close to catching the killer that she found it tough keeping her mind on the road.

She wasn’t even thinking about how great it would feel to have all her theories and efforts vindicated. It wasn’t about proving others wrong. It was about seeing a murderer locked up and making the world ever-so-slightly safer. A world in which her daughter would grow up, hopefully never realising just how scary a place it could be.

Kate pushed the accelerator up to ninety, racing to her destiny.

---

The venue was a traditional English pub. It was a long, white building with a thatched roof, and tiny windows, through which Kate could see little from her car parked at the edge of the road. Outside, heavy rain fell on the dark, unilluminated road, causing condensation to fog the windows and windscreen. In fact, the only light she could see was coming from within the pub. Kate wasn’t certain what car Isbitt would show up in, but there were no BMW SUVs in the vicinity.

The clock on the dashboard read 19:31. Had she missed them? Or were they already inside? She needed confirmation, but if he saw her, he would cancel his plans, and she’d be no closer to catching him.

There was no other choice: she would have to go inside.

Pushing the car door open, she hurried across the car park, holding a hand over her head, which did little to shelter her against the heavy downpour. The five picnic tables outside the pub were sodden, and rain dripped into puddles on the concrete beneath. Kate tried to peer through the small window in the door, but she could only just make out the bar through the angled glass.

Pushing the door open slowly, she peered through, eyes darting left and right for any sign of them. She wanted to take her time, to fully assess the location, but in the back of her mind, she couldn’t escape the possibility that Isbitt and Rachel were both running late, and could arrive at any moment, catching her there.

Inside it was pretty empty, with only two older men standing at the bar, chatting loudly with the white-haired barman. The pub opened out to the left where tables and chairs were neatly laid out, but she could only see two couples dining. No sign of Isbitt.

Moving further in, she nodded towards the barman.

‘What can I get for you?’ he asked, his accent from somewhere in the West Country.

‘I’m meeting someone, mind if I have a look around?’ she said quietly, wiping rain from her fringe and straining to see round the bend to where Isbitt could still be seated. But the tables there were vacant too.

Kate breathed a sigh of relief and returned to the bar, ordering a lemonade and requesting a menu. She carried her drink over to a table by one of the small windows towards the back of the restaurant, so Isbitt would be unlikely to spot her with a casual glance. Even so, she kept her head tucked behind the menu, glancing up every few seconds to see if he’d arrived.

Heavy rain continued to batter the window, but as the minutes ticked slowly past, nobody else entered the pub. A waitress approached the table, asking for her order, but she batted her away, not wanting to draw attention to herself. Every time headlights flashed past, Kate fixated on the vehicle, looking for Isbitt’s SUV, but she couldn’t clearly identify makes and models. Five minutes later, the door to the pub opened, and straining to see that end of the building, she saw a large man in a hat and coat approach the two men who were still chatting loudly at the bar.

Deciding her trip out had been a bust, she phoned Laura, whose phone went to voicemail. She left a message advising her that Isbitt hadn’t shown, and that they should regroup first thing, before Kate returned to London.

She settled her bill at the bar, and opened the door, stepping out into the heavy rain. The road was empty in both directions, so she raced towards where she’d parked Trish’s car, unlocking it with the remote as she jumped to avoid puddles. Opening the driver’s door, the sound of rain on the roof of the car covered the sound of someone approaching from behind. Kate felt a sudden pain against the back of her head, and then she was tumbling towards the wet and muddy ground.