She put the picture down and shuffled uncomfortably on the mattress, trying to get comfortable. There was a section close to the edge that felt softer than the rest and she had partially sunk into it. Jessica picked up the second photo in which Molly and Sienna were still children, perhaps eleven or twelve years old. They were on a beach but the framing was a lot tighter and Jessica couldn’t see much more than their smiling youthful faces.

As she put down the second picture, for a reason she didn’t want to think about, Sebastian popped into Jessica’s mind again.

‘You know what the news is going to say, don’t you?’ she said.

Reynolds caught her eye from across the room, telling her he knew. ‘We don’t have anything to say there’s any sort of suicide ring going on around here.’

‘I know that but it’s not going to stop them writing it – or hinting and letting people put two and two together. Before we know it we’ll have every parent with a teenager keeping them inside because they think they’re part of some cult.’

‘What can we do?’ Reynolds replied. ‘If we tell the press office to brief against this, it’s going to risk giving the media a story they don’t have. Even after that, there would be nothing to stop them writing it the way they want anyway.’

Jessica thought about his response for a few moments and then changed the subject. ‘Are we going to be okay talking to the parents?’

Reynolds crossed back to where Jessica was standing, walking past her with an implication that she should follow. ‘To a degree. They’ve got a support officer with them. The father wanted to talk earlier but we were waiting for his wife to settle. Ideally we would leave them for a while but if there is anything deeper going on here . . .’ He tailed off without finishing his sentence.

As they made their way downstairs, Jessica thought she would never have known anything untoward had happened in the house if it wasn’t for the items on the floor of Molly’s bedroom. The hallways and stairs were covered with a thick, fluffy pink carpet and pictures of Molly and adults Jessica assumed were her parents lined the walls. It was very suburban, very normal.

Reynolds led Jessica into a living room where a support officer and two uniformed officers were sitting on chairs facing the people who Jessica had seen in the photographs. Reynolds introduced himself and Jessica to Molly’s parents and apologised for their regular clothes. Jessica had dropped Adam at home before heading to the house still in the jeans and jumper she had been wearing all day. The inspector was wearing something similarly casual but the young woman’s parents, who introduced themselves as Peter and Nicola, waved away their apologies.

The other officers left the room and closed the door as the Scene of Crime team arrived. Reynolds had already told Jessica they were running late because of a large traffic accident involving a lorry and a shop front in the city centre.

The paramedics had transported the body but the bedroom still needed to be examined.

Jessica was struck by how much Peter North looked like his daughter. He was somewhere in his forties but they shared the same facial structure and had a dimple in the same spot on their cheeks. Nicola looked older than her husband but Jessica put a lot of that down to the trauma of what had happened. Her eyes were red and swollen.

Peter did much of the talking, telling them more or less the same as what Reynolds had already spoken about upstairs. It was the little details that struck Jessica. He mentioned that they always went to the same pub for Sunday lunch because of the way they cooked the roast potatoes. He said they were ready to leave but met a couple they knew. Because of that, they stopped for an extra coffee they might not usually have had. Nicola hadn’t looked up from the tissue she was holding until her husband said that, at which point she blew her nose loudly and burst into tears.

Reynolds caught Jessica’s eye to say they would have to be quick in getting anything else they needed because the woman clearly wasn’t up to it. As he comforted his wife, Peter explained that Nicola had gone upstairs when Molly hadn’t responded to their arrival home. He rushed up after her when the screaming started.

‘It was my belt,’ was all he could conclude. Jessica knew that single detail would be something that would stay with him. What if he had worn different trousers and needed that belt? What if they hadn’t stopped for the extra coffee? She knew there was nothing she could say that would make either of them feel any better.

‘Did you have any reason to think she might be unhappy?’ Jessica asked as tactfully as she could manage.

Peter shook his head. ‘She was upset over her friend Sienna. They were so close. They had been friends for ages. Sienna used to sleep over here and then Molly would stay at theirs. Well, not recently. Not since her dad left her mum and bought the new house.’

‘Do you know if the two girls had fallen out?’ Jessica asked.

Peter went to answer but Nicola spoke across him. Her voice was throaty, dry, and sounded painful. ‘They used to fall out when they were younger, much younger. But they grew out of it like most girls do.’

Jessica directly addressed Nicola. ‘Do you know why either Sienna or Molly might want to do something like this?’

Nicola’s bottom lip started to wobble again at the mention of her daughter’s name. She shook her head. ‘No.’

Peter stood and walked behind where they were sitting. The daylight had almost gone and he twisted a cord which closed the blinds before returning to sit next to his wife.

‘Were there any other friends Molly was close to?’ Jessica asked.

Nicola shook her head again. ‘There were some girls she used to hang around with but that was because they were Sienna’s friends. I know she didn’t think much of them.’

As his wife tailed off, Peter spoke. ‘I kept expecting her to bring home some boy I inevitably wouldn’t like. At first it was a bit of a joke but then I just left her to it. You’re not supposed to like your daughter’s boyfriends, are you? I was always waiting for one not to like.’

Jessica watched the man gulp and wipe his face with the back of his hand. She glanced at Nicola, who caught her eye. It was only for a moment but Jessica could tell that Molly’s mother knew exactly why her daughter hadn’t been bringing home boyfriends. Jessica nodded a fraction to acknowledge what the woman was saying without words and, in that silent understanding, Jessica felt a lump in her own throat.

She blinked furiously, fighting back tears she didn’t understand. She’d had the same feelings in the car with Adam earlier in the day but that was over a different issue and Jessica couldn’t fathom why she was struggling to deal with her emotions. She had been able to put a brave face on most things through her career but, perhaps because they reminded her so much of herself and Caroline at that age, she was feeling attached to the two teenage girls.

Reynolds didn’t peer towards her but it felt as if he was aware of her feelings as he took up the questioning, clarifying a few things they needed for their records and checking to see if the names of Molly’s friends matched the ones they already had.

When he had finished, Reynolds stood and shook hands with Molly’s parents. Jessica followed suit, again locking eyes with Nicola. She felt like hugging the woman instead.

Both officers left contact numbers in case either of the parents thought of anything else they might need to know. The support officer re-entered and Jessica could hear the investigating officers working upstairs.

She walked alongside Reynolds down the pathway towards their respective cars. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked.

‘Sorry, I don’t know what came over me. I just . . . I don’t even know what to say. It seems like such a waste.’