Gina threw her jacket over the filing cabinet in her office and wiped away the line of sweat that was forming at her brow. She wrestled with the creaky window, finally managing to fully open it. Hot breeze blew her hair over the front of her face, the light revealing her split ends. After this case, she was going to get a much-needed haircut but as always, her self-care was at the bottom of the list. Hair is just hair, she thought. It can wait. Solving the case or cases of their two dead girls was her priority and that started with familiarising herself with the one they’d identified, Simone Duxford.

She sat and shifted the mouse until the screen lit up. She put Roy’s name into the search bar and waited. He wasn’t on their system at all. Her mind wandered back to the morgue. There was definitely some tension between Roy and Julia.

She flicked back to the previous screen and Simone’s file flashed up along with an email notification. There was an update from O’Connor. Simone’s foster family, social worker and biological mother had been informed of her death. Bryn Tilly had been in to speak to them and had not shown any recognition of Simone Duxford, not of her name or photo.

Eighteen, nearly nineteen. Date of birth tenth of August 1999. Registered as living in foster care up until she was eighteen. There was a note on the file. The foster family had wanted her to stay with them, but Simone hadn’t got on well with their children and had left after securing a hostel placement in Birmingham at the end of August that same year. Another note told her that Simone never checked into the hostel. Her foster family, the Smiths, reported her missing at this point but she later called them to say she was staying with friends. As she was an adult, they felt the only thing they could do was leave her to it.

Gina scanned Simone’s conviction file. There were three cautions for shoplifting in Birmingham and finally a conviction for theft of wallets in a nightclub in Birmingham. This resulted in an eight-week suspended sentence. Gina continued scanning Simone’s arrest notes. Simone had become tearful, stating that she had no choice as she’d needed money to fund her drug habit.

Gina scrolled down further. There was also a caution for soliciting outside a bar in Birmingham in October 2017. So many young people ended up like Simone. Out of the care system, into hostels or on the streets, with nowhere to go. Maybe she’d tried to reconnect with her blood relatives. Opening the family tab, Gina stopped on the passage that described her mother’s drug problem. Simone was removed from her care after a drug bust on her property revealed a dealing operation. Miss Duxford was only twenty-eight when her daughter was removed from her care and she’d never tried to maintain any relationship with her after that. She scrolled down further, trying to find out who Simone’s father was. There was no one registered.

Gina tried to put herself into Miss Duxford’s mindset. At fifteen she becomes pregnant and gives birth to Simone when she’s sixteen. Had she been disowned by her parents? Had the father given her empty promises at the time, then failed to live up to them? Why hadn’t she registered him as the father? Maybe she didn’t know who he was. Was she assaulted? So many questions that maybe weren’t relevant to the investigation, or were they? Had Simone gone looking for her father? Who were the friends she was meant to be staying with? There was only one way to find out. She picked up her phone. ‘Wyre, we need to speak to Simone Duxford’s foster family. I know I tasked you and O’Connor with investigating this further, but I need to be there. It’s also important that one of you are with me to hear what is said and get straight onto follow ups when we get back. Despite what I said, I’ll still also be actively working both cases and keeping in mind that they are looking certain to be one case. Do either you or O’Connor want to come with me now? Simone Duxford’s foster family only live in Bromsgrove, so we won’t be too long.’ She heard Wyre relaying the message to O’Connor.

‘O’Connor said he’d like to go. I’m snowed under going through the masses of calls we’ve had and all the information from the door to doors.’

‘Any of it relevant?’

‘Not as yet, but they keep coming in thick and fast.’

‘Right. Let O’Connor know I’ll be ready to leave in five.’ Gina hung up, powered her computer down and grabbed her phone.