Back at the office, Alex and Dan sat at his desk in the incident room. The 999 call that had been received on Thursday night had been enhanced so that the music Alex had picked up on in the background could now be heard more distinctly. Dan pressed the enhanced recording and turned down the sound of the caller’s voice in order to make the music clearer.

‘We should probably talk about last night,’ Alex said quietly.

‘Not here, though.’

‘I don’t want this to affect our work.’

Dan pulled his chair closer to the desk, widening the gap between them. ‘Neither do I, but I can’t do this now, all right. I’m sorry.’

‘I’m the one who should be apologising.’

‘You’ve got the 999 call back then?’

Alex turned to see Chloe just behind them, her focus on the paused audio clip on Dan’s computer. She felt a flush creep up her throat, hoping Chloe hadn’t overheard any of their conversation. Turning from both women, Dan clicked the file and waited for them to listen to the clip again.

‘That’s not a ringtone, is it?’ Alex said. ‘Not a standard one that comes with a phone, anyway.’

Chloe pulled a chair over to the desk. ‘You can download pretty much anything as a ringtone now.’

Dan paused the file and played it back, repeating the six seconds that held the best quality of enhanced recording. ‘Can anyone make out the words?’

The three listened closely again.

‘Got Shazam on your phone?’ Dan asked Chloe.

‘Shazam? Check you out, down with the kids.’

Dan smiled, though Chloe noticed it didn’t reach his eyes. ‘You learn a lot having daughters.’

Chloe turned to the room, searching out Jake and calling him over. She didn’t have the app on her phone, but knew that Jake did. He held the phone to the speaker as they replayed the recording.

‘There’s not enough,’ he said when the app returned no result. ‘You’d need a longer clip.’

Alex’s eyes followed Jake as he returned to his desk. ‘Why is he still here? He’s about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike.’ She leaned across Chloe and pressed the recording again. ‘“Impractical”,’ she said. ‘Does that sound like “impractical” to you?’

Chloe shrugged. ‘Could be.’

Alex wrote down the word in the notebook in front of her. ‘And “death”. Listen.’ She played the recording for a final time, pausing at each distinct word in turn. They were the only two that were clear enough to identify. ‘That’s bound to be a lot of help.’ She pushed back her chair and stood, leaving Chloe and Dan at the desk. Neither spoke for a moment. Chloe noticed that Alex had barely made eye contact with her, and she hadn’t seemed to acknowledge Dan once during the conversation.

‘Whatever’s going on with her, I hope she snaps out of it soon,’ she mumbled. ‘She told me someone cut the brake fluid line on her car.’

‘Yeah?’

Chloe narrowed her eyes, assessing Dan’s response. ‘Did you know?’

He shook his head, but it was an unconvincing denial.

‘She hasn’t said much. I wonder why she hasn’t reported it.’ Chloe pressed further.

‘You’d have to ask her.’

Chloe got up and crossed the incident room, returning to her own desk. She glanced back at Dan, who had returned his focus to his computer but didn’t appear to actually be doing anything. She looked to her own work. Feedback from the three shops in which the skeleton outfit was stocked had so far proved fruitless: no one recognised anyone matching the description of the suspect captured on CCTV. Not that it was much of a description. Male, around five foot nine. It described a quarter of south Wales’s population.

And was this all a waste of time anyway? she wondered. The outfit was available quite widely online, which broadened their search to a near-impossible scale. Some of the team were looking into it, but no one expected their inquiries to lead to anything.

Feeling dejected and frustrated, Chloe got back up and headed for the staff toilets. As she entered the ladies’, Alex was leaving one of the cubicles. She barely acknowledged Chloe as she went to the sink to wash her hands.

‘Has something happened?’

Alex looked up from the sink. ‘Other than the fact that this investigation is so slow it might as well be going backwards?’

‘I know,’ Chloe agreed, frustrated by Alex’s evasion of the question. ‘But I don’t mean that. Is this about the car? You should report it, you know.’

‘So you keep saying.’

‘And what’s going on with you and Dan? You could have filed nails on the atmosphere earlier.’

Alex shook the excess water from her hands and went to the dryer, allowing the blast of warm air to halt the conversation. Chloe waited. If Alex thought she was going to give in that easily, then she obviously didn’t know her well enough.

‘You’ve been acting weird all day. I know something’s up.’

‘Just leave it, please.’

‘What did you have to apologise to him for?’ Chloe asked. ‘I heard you say something about needing to—’

‘That was a private conversation,’ Alex said defensively. Too defensively, she realised. If anything, it only made Chloe increasingly suspicious.

Chloe narrowed her eyes. ‘Have you two argued or something?’

‘Chloe, just leave it, for God’s sake.’

She couldn’t. Alex’s behaviour was uncharacteristic and had only served to heighten her curiosity. ‘Has something happened between you and Dan?’

When the words left her mouth the question seemed a ridiculous one, but Alex’s immediate reaction suggested it was perhaps less ludicrous than she’d assumed, and that she’d been closer to the truth than she’d realised.

‘No way,’ she said slowly. She sought Alex’s face, forcing her to make eye contact. ‘Is there something going on?’

Alex opened her mouth to lie, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Chloe knew her well enough to spot when she was trying to evade the truth, and besides, Chloe hated liars. She was going to be annoyed enough by what Alex had done; lying would only make things worse. She didn’t need to say anything anyway; the truth was already out, stamped in the guilt Alex realised she was wearing all over her face.

‘He’s married,’ Chloe said, as though Alex needed reminding of the fact.

‘I’m aware of that, thank you.’

Chloe shook her head in disbelief, eyeing Alex as though she didn’t recognise her. ‘You work with him.’

‘If all you’re going to do is point out the bloody obvious then I think we’re done here,’ Alex said, heading towards the door.

Chloe stepped in front of her, blocking her exit. ‘Have you slept with him?’

‘No.’

‘But …?’

Alex sighed, but her lack of words spoke volumes.

‘Why would you go anywhere near him?’

‘Because I could,’ Alex snapped, frustrated by the stream of questions. ‘Because the opportunity was there and because I’m a sad, lonely old cow no one else would look at. Does that answer your question? Remind me when I became answerable to you anyway? It was nothing, all right. So don’t go blowing it out of proportion. We all know you can’t resist a drama.’

Chloe looked at her as though Alex had just slapped her. If she wasn’t already so angered by what Alex had done, she would have been upset by her animosity. ‘What has happened to you? You know, I used to respect you, but this morning you made me look stupid in front of everyone, and now this. There’s not much to respect really, is there?’

She moved aside as Alex reached for the door handle. ‘I’m your superior,’ Alex reminded her. ‘Whether you like it or not. Perhaps things would work better if we all remembered that fact.’

They were interrupted by the appearance of a female constable, who almost walked into Alex as she opened the door. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I’ve been looking for you. Richard Peters is in reception.’