‘Garry Ashford, please.’

‘One moment.’ Generic instrumental music started playing, agitating Jessica even further. The line quickly clicked back to the woman’s voice. ‘Can I ask who is calling, please?’

‘Yes, it’s his mother.’

‘Okay, one moment.’

The music returned as Jessica re-read the top few lines of the story, allowing herself to become more annoyed by it. After a couple of minutes, the tune finally ended and Garry spoke. ‘Mum, I told you to call my mobile.’

‘I did but you’re not answering that, are you, Mr Ashford?’

There were a few moments of silence before the journalist realised he had been duped. ‘Jess?’

‘What the hell is going on with the headline?’

‘Jess, I, er . . .’

‘And since when do you ignore my calls? I’ve been dodging yours for years but that’s not the point.’

Garry stumbled over his words before finally coughing to clear his throat. ‘Sorry. I didn’t write the headline but you can’t say the story isn’t true. Two teenagers have both killed themselves with apparently no good reason. Why shouldn’t we report that?’

‘It’s not just reporting that though, is it? It’s the implication there might be a string of other young girls ready to do the same.’

‘Are you saying there’s not?’ Garry shot back.

‘Are you saying there are?’

There was a pause before the journalist replied. ‘I told you, I didn’t write the headline, or the story for that matter. If you want to take it up with someone, call the editor.’

Jessica was surprised at the annoyance in his voice. Their relationship had always been very one-sided in her favour. ‘I’m sorry, Garry,’ she said. ‘I know it’s not you.’

When the journalist replied, his tone was a lot steadier. ‘Jess, we know each other well enough that I understand you just wanted someone to shout at. But as I keep telling you, these decisions go above me.’

She felt a little silly, recognising he was right. ‘Fair enough but we have now got people going into schools and colleges today to give talks and so on.’

‘Maybe that’s a good thing? If there is a wider problem, it will get people asking for help.’

When he put it like that, Jessica realised the morning’s coverage wasn’t entirely negative. ‘You’re a slippery little fellow, aren’t you?’ she said, lightening her tone to let him know she was joking.

Garry laughed. ‘If I were you, I’d be more concerned by the morning’s other revelation?’

‘What?’

‘The fact our secretary thinks your voice sounds like a sixty-four-year-old woman’s. That can’t be a good sign.’

Jessica couldn’t stop herself from giggling, although his point did hit a little too close to home. ‘All right, laugh it up,’ she said. ‘You’ve not been breaking any speed limits recently, have you? Tax disc in date? What about the tread on your tyres? Are they the correct depth?’

‘Everything’s perfectly in order. The police are dodgy around here so you’ve got to be careful.’

‘Yeah, all right. We should go for a beer sometime. Just stop pissing me off, okay?’

‘I think me breathing pisses you off, but I’ll do my best.’

Jessica put down the receiver, feeling a little better, despite the lack of shouting. As she did, her mobile started ringing, with Andrew Hunter’s name illuminated.

‘You called at just the right time,’ Jessica answered.

Her greeting obviously confused the caller, who could only reply with a, ‘Huh?’

‘If you had phoned ten minutes ago, I would have been less than my cheery, fragrant self.’

‘Er, right . . . I’ve got something for you.’

Jessica realised the man hadn’t had time to adjust to her sense of humour. ‘Go on.’

‘I was going to call last night but it got late and then your line was busy this morning. Yesterday I followed your Ryan lad. I wanted to see what his routine was. Anyway, I ended up following him to this bridge out by his work where he met this girl.’

Jessica couldn’t stop herself from interrupting. She took a pen from her top drawer and turned over a scrap of paper. ‘Did you recognise her?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘Did you get any pictures?’

‘No, it was way too dark. Ryan gave her this large envelope. I didn’t want to be too conspicuous but I heard her ask him where he got the money from.’

For a moment, Jessica didn’t know what to say, before replying with a simple: ‘Money?’

‘Yes. I don’t know how much. The envelope didn’t seem particularly stuffed but I only saw it for a second.’ Andrew went on to describe the girl.

‘So she’s about his age?’ Jessica confirmed. ‘Why would he be giving her cash?’

‘I don’t know. I was hoping you might.’

Jessica tried to think. If the woman was a similar age to Ryan, that meant she was also close to Sienna and Molly. Could that mean anything?

‘Did you follow her?’ she asked.

‘I tried to but she walked off on her own and got in a car after separating from Ryan. I’ve got the number plate.’ Jessica noted it down and said she would contact him if she managed to find anything out.

Because of the way rules had been tightened in recent years to prevent officers using various databases to check up on people they knew, Jessica wasn’t sure if she should look into the number plate. Everything was traceable back to the person who made the request and, considering the information had come from Andrew – who was only working in an unofficial capacity – Jessica was even more wary. Her concern lasted less than twenty seconds as she figured she would deal with any disciplinary problems if they arose at a later date. She doubted they would.

She was in the process of noting down the car owner’s name and address when Rowlands knocked and entered her office. ‘Have you got a minute, Jess?’

‘That depends who it’s for.’

The constable laughed. ‘Having a good day, are we?’

‘I’m as much a bundle of joy as always,’ Jessica replied, spreading her arms wide and offering him an over-the-top grin.

‘Are we still on for later?’

‘Yes but Iz told me to tell you to bring a balaclava.’

‘Why?’

‘Because if she’s going to introduce you to Amber, she doesn’t want the poor girl tortured by that face of yours.’

Jessica had always been a little scared of babies. The first fear was that she would somehow manage to break them. One time when she was in uniform, she had been sent to a property to interview a potential suspect. The furious mother had asked the two officers if they could keep an eye on her ‘child’ while she went out to drag her wayward son back into the house. What she hadn’t said was that the ‘child’ was actually a seven-month-old baby. With her colleague flatly refusing to touch it, Jessica was left cradling the little girl.

The second fear was based on a far more irrational feeling that a child’s head was simply too big. She had read somewhere that you had the same size eyes as a baby as you did as a fully grown adult. It sounded suspiciously made-up but, ever since, Jessica had been slightly creeped out by how large their heads were in comparison to the rest of their bodies.

As Izzy stood up from the reclining seat and offered Amber to Jessica, both of the fears jumped to the front of her mind at the same time.

‘It’s just a baby,’ Izzy said with a smile as she practically forced the child into Jessica’s arms.

Jessica cupped the child’s head with her elbow and awkwardly sat on the nearby sofa, thinking it would at least be less of a fall if she dropped the baby.

Rowlands was next to her, struggling to contain his laughter. ‘It’s just a kid, Jess, what do you think is going to happen?’

Izzy returned to her recliner, sighing loudly but grinning at the same time. ‘If you want to keep her for a day or two, feel free. I’ll just sleep.’

Jessica almost swore but had visions of Amber’s first word having four letters in it. ‘They’re pretty small, aren’t they?’