The college was a collection of buildings sprawling across a large industrial estate. Inge emerged from the glass doors of a brown building, books clutched in her arms, talking to another girl. She caught sight of Natalie waiting beside the car, excused herself and, leaving her companion, walked over to join the officers.

‘My mum’s majorly pissed with me and I haven’t been able to talk to Adam.’ Her tone was accusatory, filled with anger and upset.

‘I’m sorry to hear that. We hoped you might be able to tell us about Finn Kennedy. You ought to have an independent adult with you though. I shouldn’t question you alone.’

Inge frowned. ‘I don’t want an adult. I’m almost eighteen and I’ll tell you whatever you need to know. What’s Finn got to do with this?’

‘You went out with him, didn’t you?’

‘And I dumped him.’

‘When was the last time you saw Finn?’

‘Ages ago.’ The answer was quick, too quick, and she tightened her grip on her books, drawing them closer to her chest.

‘Inge, when did you last see him?’ Natalie persisted

‘I don’t remember.’ Inge turned and was about to stalk off when Natalie spoke.

‘We have reason to believe that Finn was at the Brannons’ house on Friday night.’

Inge pivoted towards them, eyes blazing. ‘He didn’t do it. He didn’t kill them.’

Natalie held the girl’s defiant gaze. ‘You’re very quick to jump to his defence. This is somebody you broke up with yet you’re standing up for him. I can only imagine there’s one reason you’d do that. He’s contacted you and you already knew he was there on Friday night, didn’t you?’

‘He didn’t kill them!’ she shouted, her face reddening.

‘Inge, he was spotted holding steel piping and running down the street with an accomplice. If he didn’t intend harming Charlotte, why else was he there? Was it to see you? Were you getting back together?’

‘No! I love Adam.’

‘It might be best if you come to the station with us to discuss this,’ said Natalie calmly. ‘I’ll arrange for your mother or father to join us.’

‘Mum will go mental. No. Don’t make me go to the station. I’m in so much trouble already. Dad is furious and won’t talk to me. I don’t want them to be involved in this. My life is total shit. I just want to see Adam.’ She dropped her head.

‘Then help us, Inge. Did Finn contact you?’

She nodded miserably. ‘When he found out Charlotte was dead he freaked out. Especially after what happened between him and Adam. He figured everyone would think he had something to do with her death. He came to ask me for money to get a pay-as-you-go phone so he could keep in touch with his mates and find out what was going on. He wanted to lie low until the murderer was caught.’

‘What did he tell you?’

‘He was going to smash up Adam’s car. That’s what he went to the house for. He’d found out about me and Adam sleeping together so he wanted to give him some payback, but before he did anything, he heard a scream from the house and legged it. He assumed Charlotte had spotted him from a window and would call the police. Then, the next day, he found out she was dead. He guessed you’d look for him.’

‘We know he was with somebody that night. Do you know who that might have been?’

Inge shook her head. ‘He didn’t mention anyone else. I thought he was alone.’

‘Do you have any idea where he’s gone?’

‘I honestly don’t know but he’ll keep in contact with his best mate. He might know.’

‘That Hassan Ali?’

‘Yeah.’

‘We have learnt Finn got ejected from the boxing club. It was over fighting, wasn’t it?’

‘It was more than that. Finn and Hassan were in a serious fight with one of the other kids, pulled knives on him. Adam had already warned Finn about his temper and he lost it with him. Finn begged for another chance. Boxing was going to be his life. He had a sponsor and everything lined up but Adam wouldn’t listen. He’d had enough of Finn. He was always picking on the other kids and starting fights. Adam said he was too volatile to be a professional boxer.’

‘And Finn took it badly?’

‘I suppose so. I’d stopped going out with him by then. He tried to talk me round but I was seeing Adam and didn’t want to go back with him. He’d go off on one for no good reason although he was always okay with me.’

‘How much money did you give him?’

‘Fifty pounds. It was all I had. I had to take it out of my savings account. Dad will go spare if he finds out I gave it to him. Don’t say anything to my parents. Please.’

‘Why did you help him?’

‘I felt sorry for him. He looked so scared. I’ve never seen him like that before. And because I believed him.’

---

Lucy had returned from Oxfordshire and was keen to follow up on what she’d found out about Jed. ‘Murray, will you come with me to collect Jed Malloney? I want to bring him back here and interview him officially. He went to Stoke last Friday for a radio interview but didn’t go straight back to London. He claimed he was going to spend time with the Hills. Doesn’t sit right with me. They’d have said something about him if he’d turned up at their house, wouldn’t they?’

Murray scraped back his chair. ‘I’d have thought so.’

‘You got anything?’

‘Chased up that Lucia Perez case. I’d hoped there’d be more of a connection to this case, given she was also beaten to death and her child left alive, but can’t establish any links other than the fact Adam was in Nottingham the day of the murder. Spoke to the DCI in charge and he still believes the husband was behind it even though there’s no proof. Says the guy was a particularly nasty piece of work. Everything pointed to him. He thinks Lucia tried to scarper and Rodrigo found out about it and attacked her before she could get away. Doesn’t appear to be connected to this case.’

‘In a way, that’s good. It doesn’t cloud our investigation.’

They headed down the stairs and into the brightly lit entrance.

‘You need bloody sunglasses down here. Every time the sun peeps out it’s blinding with all the glass in the building,’ Murray complained, squinting as he placed his pass on the control panel of the barrier and waited for it to automatically open.

Lucy was through before him and strode towards the car quickly. ‘It’s okay during the long winter months though. Better than the last place.’ Both Lucy and Murray had transferred at the same time to the newly built Samford headquarters.

‘You miss the old station?’ he asked.

‘Not at all. Great idea to put in a request for a transfer. I prefer it here.’

‘Whose great idea was it?’ he joked as they got into the vehicle.

‘Yeah, yeah. Have another pat on the back.’

‘Good to know though, isn’t it?’

‘What?’

‘That your baby is going to have such terrific genes.’

‘Shut up!’ she said, smiling.

He eased out onto the road and accelerated away from the station. ‘How’s Bethany doing?’

‘Good. She’s seventeen weeks gone now. No cravings yet and she seems to be over the morning sickness.’

Murray pulled a face. ‘Glad I’m a man.’

He concentrated on the route through town and out into the country, where the Hills lived, making no further reference to the baby. Lucy used the time to work out what she’d say to Jed.

There were four cars parked outside Walnut Cottage. Murray drew in behind a red Mercedes convertible. On the back seat was an Emirates flight attendant’s hat.

‘Phoebe’s,’ he said as they walked past it to the front porch. He rang the bell.

Phoebe answered. The smudges under her eyes indicated she’d been crying.

‘We’d like to have a few words with your fiancé, please.’

‘Whatever do you want with him?’

‘It’s okay, honey. I’ll talk to them. You go back to your mom.’ Jed, in tight jeans and a T-shirt bearing the name of his band, gave her a smile. ‘Go on, scoot. I’ll only be a minute.’

She didn’t budge.

‘It’ll be standard police procedure, right, officers?’ He looked at them, pale eyebrows lifted. He was saved by his future father-in-law, who appeared briefly and seemed agitated. Inside, a baby was crying, his wails increasing with each exhalation.

‘Phoebe, love. Can you help your mum? She can’t get Alfie to settle.’

Jed edged away from the door and whispered to her, ‘Go on. This will be nothing important. They’re just checking everyone who knew Charlotte and I haven’t been interviewed yet.’

Phoebe threw him a look before departing.

As soon as she’d left, his eyes turned flinty and the smile vanished. ‘So, what can I help you with, officers?’ He continued to block the doorway, unwilling to allow them entry.

‘We’re clearing up a couple of facts,’ Lucy said. ‘You gave an interview on BBC Radio Stoke on Friday afternoon but didn’t return to London until some time the next day. You told your manager you were going to visit your future in-laws, Kevin and Sheila.’

‘That’s right. I’d intended dropping in to wish them a happy anniversary but I finished the interview later than I expected, got chatting to the sound engineers at the radio station, you know how it is. Time went by and I changed my mind. I went into town and had a couple of drinks but I got the timings wrong, missed the nine forty-five train and caught the late train around eleven. That one stopped at Wolverhampton where I slept on a bench until the first train out at five in the morning. I got back to London at seven.’

‘I see. Any reason you missed the nine forty-five train?’

‘Bad timing on my part.’

‘This wasn’t your first trip to Stoke, was it?’

‘I’ve been there before.’

‘In December 2016.’

‘If you say so.’ He showed a set of perfect white teeth.

‘You were playing in Stoke on Friday, December the second, 2016.’

‘Again. If you say so.’

‘It was also the night you met Charlotte Brannon.’

The teeth vanished. ‘I don’t know what you’re suggesting but I’d better remind you there’s a house of people in pain here. They’re going through hell at the moment.’

‘I’m aware of that, sir. Did you have an affair with Charlotte Brannon?’

‘Hell no.’

‘Did she go back to the hotel with you that night?’

Alfie’s cries had strengthened. Jed pulled the door to block them out. ‘I didn’t know who she was, okay? I was completely out of my head that night. She was just some good-looking woman who had the hots for me. She must have followed our minibus to the hotel and gotten a room key off housekeeping. I was half-asleep when she climbed into bed with me. What was I supposed to do? It was one time. One time only.’

‘You must have known who she was, Jed. Surely you’d met her before then, or at least seen photos of her? You were going out with Phoebe at the time. I can’t believe you didn’t know who Charlotte was.’

‘That night is one big fucking fog. Honestly. I didn’t recognise her. Maybe some part of my brain registered who she was, but it didn’t stick. You have to believe me when I say I was as high as a kite. I really didn’t remember what happened that night. By morning, when I came to, she’d gone.’

‘I take it you’ve never discussed that night with Phoebe.’

‘No. Can you imagine the fallout?’ He rubbed a hand down his sideburns and over his chin.

‘Have you any witnesses who can testify to your whereabouts last Friday?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘There might be footage of you at Stoke or Wolverhampton stations but it would help if you could remember which pubs you visited so we can talk to the bar staff for confirmation.’ Lucy pressed on, ‘Which pubs did you go into?’

‘I haven’t a freaking clue. I went into the first one I found, had a few drinks and moved on.’

‘Charlotte was murdered around eleven that night, and unless we can find concrete proof of where you were, it’s going to cast doubt on your claim.’

‘I was in Stoke-on-Trent until just after eleven, when I caught the train that stopped at Wolverhampton. Look, it’s over thirty miles to Charlotte’s house. It would have taken me at least half an hour to get back to Stoke station from there. And I had no transport.’

‘I’m sure there’d have been taxis available on a Friday night, sir,’ said Murray.

‘Find one that was stationed outside her house on Friday night and then come back here and accuse me.’ His voice maintained its hushed tone even though he was clearly aggressed.

‘Over thirty minutes,’ said Lucy thoughtfully. ‘How would you know that fact?’

He answered smoothly, ‘I’ve been to their house. We visited them one time to take Alfie a christening gift because we missed the actual christening.’

‘But how would you know how long it would take from Stoke to Samford, to Charlotte’s house? You’d have no way of knowing that unless you’d checked it out.’

‘I wasn’t there on Friday night and that’s it, got it?’

‘I’m sorry but that’s not good enough. I’m going to have to ask you to accompany us to the station.’

‘You’re kidding me.’

‘No, sir. We need to establish your whereabouts.’

His face set. ‘What if I refuse?’

‘You can’t refuse. We have the right to detain you for questioning if we believe you are connected to an indictable offence.’

‘This is crazy.’

Phoebe pushed open the door and stared out, face ghostly pale. The baby’s cries had ceased. ‘What’s going on? I thought this was only going to be a few general questions about Charlotte.’

‘Nothing to worry about, honey.’

‘We’re taking him to the station for questioning,’ said Lucy.

‘What? I don’t understand…’ Phoebe looked from Lucy to Jed. ‘What’s going on?’

‘I’ll explain later. It’s just some bullshit mix-up.’

‘Jed?’ Her voice was cagey.

‘Honest. Go back inside and be with your folks and Alfie. They all need you right now. I’ll be back later. Go on.’ He steered her back inside, mumbled something at her that Lucy couldn’t hear and reappeared. ‘Come on, then. Let’s get this over with.’

---

Natalie and Ian were back inside the Alis’ flat. Hassan’s mother, waving her hands in front of his face, was screaming at him. Natalie could only pick out the name Finn from the explosion of words that spurted from her lips. He held up his hands and placated her in his native tongue.

‘Wakha. Wakha.’

She fell silent and stepped backward while he spoke to Natalie. ‘I know where Finn is. I want to make a statement.’

‘Does your mother want to come to the station with you?’

He shook his head. ‘She’s staying here. I’m eighteen. I don’t need an adult with me.’ He marched out of the flat without looking back at his mother. She didn’t speak, only followed them to the door and shut it behind them.

Hassan strode ahead of them towards the stairs, his head high. Natalie was the first to notice the slight acceleration in his step, then, as he turned towards the stairs, she knew instinctively what was going to happen.

‘Ian, he’s going to bolt,’ she said, spurting forward.

Ahead of them, Hassan bounded down the stairs, leaping over the rail and rolling away expertly before racing off down the dark corridor.

‘Hassan!’ she yelled. ‘Stop right there.’

It was futile. She and Ian arrived at the bottom of the stairs, heads turning left and right in time to catch a movement from an emergency exit door. They careered towards it and outside into a no man’s land of rubbish: bottles, junk, bin bags and weeds.

‘Shit! Where’s he gone?’ Ahead of her lay two more flat blocks with alleyways and back entrances.

‘I’ll try that one,’ Ian said and charged towards the door leading into Hounslow House.

Natalie worked out how far he could have run in such a short space of time and headed for the nearest point, an alleyway to the side of Hassan’s building. It brought her out near the area of scrubland containing the burnt-out wreck of a car they’d pulled up next to, on their first visit to the block. Resting hands on knees and bending over to catch her breath, she decided she was getting too old to chase about. She was in her forties and – as fit as she was – unlikely to catch some eighteen-year-old. She hoped Ian had fared better, but as he burst from the front of Hounslow House, she could tell he was as frustrated as her.

‘Lost him,’ he yelled.

She moved towards him, cursing Hassan. ‘We’ll get his phone number from his mother and see if we can track him down. He’s not going to get far.’ Even as she said it, she knew there was every possibility they wouldn’t be able to find him again. He too had probably gone to ground. They’d almost certainly just allowed the one person who could help them with the investigation slip through their fingers.