Leighton Matthews was back in the interview room. He had pushed a paper cup aimlessly around the table for the previous ten minutes, allowing the untouched murky tea to go lukewarm. His solicitor sat beside him, her bottle-blonde hair pulled into a painfully tight ponytail that made her look like a middle-aged cheerleader in an eighties power suit.

Alex and Chloe were outside in the corridor.

‘I can get someone else in with me to do this,’ Chloe suggested.

Alex shook her head.

Chloe studied her tentatively. Alex’s eyes were dark and edged with heavy, exhausted shadows. ‘I’m not sure you should be here.’

‘I’m not sure I asked for your opinion on the subject.’ Alex pushed the interview room door open and gestured for Chloe to go in. Chloe felt her face colour at her superior’s curtness.

Alex sat opposite Leighton Matthews, Chloe taking the seat beside her. She pressed a button on the tape recorder. ‘Saturday 17th June. Interview with Leighton Matthews, commencing at 17.04. Mr Matthews, when you were last here, you told us that Leah Cross is your daughter. We’d like to ask you some more about the relationship between the two of you.’

Matthews looked at his solicitor. ‘Is that necessary? I thought you were investigating the hit-and-run. I don’t see why any of this is relevant.’

‘That’s for us to think about,’ Alex told him. ‘We’re currently looking for Leah in connection with this incident, but also in relation to a separate case. You might be able to help us locate her.’

‘I very much doubt that.’

‘Again, we’ll be the judges of that. When did you first find out who Leah was?’

Matthews slid his hands from the desk and balled them into fists in his lap. He sat back in his chair, pushed his head back and looked up at the ceiling. ‘Do we have to do this?’ When no one responded to the question, he sighed and wearily began his version of events.

‘It was the November before last. We were a couple of months into the first term of that year. I hadn’t really noticed Leah – she was sitting one of my modules, but it was lecture-based that term so I didn’t really get to know any of the students. She came to my office one day with a piece of work and told me who she was.’

He stopped abruptly, as if this was sufficient explanation.

‘So what happened?’ Alex asked. ‘She just walked in and said, “Hi, Daddy … surprise”?’

Matthews’ jaw tensed. ‘Not quite, obviously. She told me she knew someone who used to know me – I didn’t really think anything of it at first. Then she asked me if I remembered a woman called Carol Chambers.’

‘Which you did,’ Chloe said, taking in the reaction that had etched itself on Matthews’ face at the mere mention of the name.

‘Yes, I did.’ He glanced at his solicitor again, as though embarrassed to reveal any more in front of her. ‘Leah told me Carol was her mother. It didn’t take long to understand what she was implying.’

‘Tell us about Carol.’

He pressed his fingertips against his eyelids. ‘I’m not proud of what happened.’

‘Which part?’ Alex asked sharply.

Chloe shot her a look. Alex’s anger was radiating in a static aura, keeping everyone around her at arm’s length. She realised that the investigation into Keira’s death was getting to her – it was starting to get to them all, but now, in the aftermath of Gillian’s death, it was evident Alex wasn’t coping. The case had already been marred by error and misjudgement. Chloe didn’t want Alex to be responsible for any mistakes that might follow; she knew her colleague would never forgive herself.

‘Tell us what happened,’ she prompted.

‘It was the summer of 1996. I was a few years out of uni and working as a teacher. Melissa and I had been married nearly a year. Our first child was on the way. She was having a rough time of it: morning sickness, tiredness … we weren’t getting on very well. I mean, that wasn’t the reason why, there were lots of things at the time, but we decided to have a break from one another, just for a couple of weeks, to get our heads straight. She went to stay with her mother and I went to Cornwall to stay at my cousin’s. He was away that summer – he let me have his flat for a while so I could concentrate on finishing the book I was working on.’

His speech was flowing freely now. Despite his earlier reluctance to tell the truth, confession now seemed to come naturally to him.

‘I met Carol on the second day I was there. She was working behind the bar at this place not far away and we got chatting. I never told her I was married. I didn’t mean for things to happen the way they did, but she was young and fun and it was everything Melissa and I didn’t have at the time. I felt … I don’t know … trapped. It was like a two-week holiday from my life, I suppose.’

‘What a heart-warming tale,’ Alex said. ‘So you shacked up with the barmaid for a fortnight, didn’t get the book finished … and then what? Went home to your pregnant wife and never said a word?’

‘DI King,’ Frankie Piper interjected. ‘Mr Matthews has told you what happened, as requested.’

Alex ignored the woman. ‘You never said anything to your wife about this?’ she asked again.

Matthews shook his head.

‘So nineteen years later, a teenager turns up in your office and tells you she’s your daughter?’

‘Yes. Like I said, I’m not proud of what happened. But I’d never heard from Carol since that trip to Cornwall – I had no idea she’d got pregnant.’

‘How did you react when you found out?’ Chloe asked.

‘Well … as you’d expect. Shocked. This was the first I’d known about it.’

‘And how did you react to Leah? Were you kind to her? Or did you tell her she shouldn’t have looked for you?’

‘I admit I wasn’t very nice, not the first time. I was in shock. I realise now that probably made things worse.’

‘The blackmail, you mean?’

He nodded.

‘We have copies of Leah’s bank statements here,’ Chloe said, gesturing to the paperwork on the desk. ‘You’ve made considerable transfers to her account in recent months. How much have you given her in total?’

Matthews hesitated on the answer, as though reluctant to admit it even to himself. ‘Fifteen thousand pounds.’ He sighed loudly, as though the loss had physically pained him.

Chloe raised her eyebrows. ‘Quite a steep price to pay to buy her silence.’

‘Did you ever ask her for proof?’ Alex asked. ‘A DNA test, for example?’

‘Of course I did,’ Matthews said, exasperated by the question, ‘but she told me she’d tell my wife everything – I wasn’t going to risk that. My family, my career … everything I’ve worked for. She had enough proof anyway. She knew everything about that time in Cornwall and how I’d met her mother. She had photographs of them together – of her as a baby and then as a teenager. She came to South Wales with a plan. I don’t think she ever wanted a relationship with me – it wasn’t about that. That girl is devious … calculating.’

‘Must be something in the genes,’ Alex mused.

Chloe shot her another look.

‘DI King,’ Frankie Piper said in a warning tone, glaring at Alex across the table. The look was met with a mirrored expression.

‘Do you know where Leah is now?’ Chloe asked.

‘No idea,’ Matthews told her. ‘Hopefully as far away from here as possible.’

‘Your last interview,’ Alex said, resting her elbows on the table. ‘Who were you covering for?’

He appeared unsettled by the question. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘Oh, I think you do. You were trying to protect somebody – who was it? Your wife?’

Matthews shook his head. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I wasn’t honest with you, OK? I wasn’t protecting anyone. Well … only myself. I did it, OK? I hit Leah with my car. She was never going to go away and leave us alone … I didn’t know what else to do.’

‘OK,’ Alex said, sitting back. She clearly still didn’t believe a word of it, but perhaps the threat of a charge against him might force the truth. ‘Leighton Matthews, I’m arresting you for the attempted murder of Leah Cross.’