As she walked through the sliding doors at the front of the shop, she jumped as a man reached out and touched her on the arm.

If she hadn’t been so shocked, she would have yelped but he spoke before she could say anything. ‘Do you know the time?’

Kayleigh stumbled over a reply but he continued. ‘My phone’s out of battery and there are no clocks anywhere. I’m supposed to be going for an interview but I don’t know where it is. My bus was late and now I think I’m late.’

Kayleigh noticed the shoulders on the man’s suit were far too big for him and he was nervously glancing from side to side. He was at least six inches taller than her and smelled of cheap aftershave, like one of her ex-boyfriends. The one who ‘stayed late’ at work a lot. Kayleigh struggled to speak and he offered a ‘sorry’ before entering the shop. She didn’t know if it was her expression or his haste which had made him walk away.

Realising she could feel her heart beating hard, Kayleigh turned and walked back the way she had come, keeping her head down and moving as quickly as she could without breaking into a run. As she reached her front door, she half expected it to be open and tried the handle before digging into her pocket to take out the key. She almost fell inside, shoving the door with a bang behind her, and leaning against the inside of the frame trying to catch her breath.

Kayleigh scanned the hallway, looking to see if everything was as it had been when she had left. It took a while but after convincing herself no one had been in the house during her absence, she crept through to the kitchen and put the shopping bag on the floor before peering through the window to see if anything in the back garden was out of place. She hated the feelings of unease but could not stop herself and wondered how long it would be before she could leave the house without double-checking every door and window. Or how long it would be before she could see a stranger without thinking they might be out to harm her.

As someone who had previously been confident and relatively outgoing, Kayleigh hated the person she knew she was becoming, detesting even more the person who had put her in this position by breaking into her house.

Resolving that the best way to start pulling herself together was to clean herself up a bit, Kayleigh put the shopping away and made her way upstairs to the bedroom where she picked up a fresh towel. She knew the reason she hadn’t been keeping on top of things was because she dreaded going into the bathroom. The police team had spent days testing everything and taking samples but she couldn’t see past finding Oliver’s distorted body.

After undressing, Kayleigh wrapped the towel around herself and carefully entered the bathroom. One of the police team had ended up cleaning things for her and, in that sense, the room looked and smelled better than it had in years. That didn’t stop her remembering the odour from before.

She turned on the warm water before realising that she no longer had a shower curtain. It had been taken for evidence but she had somehow switched off from the fact that it would need to be replaced. Kayleigh couldn’t stop picturing Oliver in the bath, even as she stood under the cascading water that half-sloshed onto the floor, trying to wash everything away.

After finishing, she stood and looked at her face in the bathroom mirror. Somehow the water had washed away some trace of the bags under her eyes, but her skin was still a sallow white. Her hair at least felt a little more normal, and she reached onto the nearby shelf to pick up her hairbrush. Realising it wasn’t in the spot where it usually was, she checked the shelf above, then the bathroom cabinet. She couldn’t think of a reason why anyone from the police team would have taken it – and hadn’t seen the brush on the list of things they had taken. She had another in the drawer next to the mirror downstairs but didn’t fancy going all that way.

Kayleigh re-wrapped the towel around herself and walked through to the bedroom where she checked her bedside table, even though she never left her brush anywhere but the bathroom.

She sat on the bed, gently towelling her hair dry and wondering where she could have possibly put it.

11

‘Cheer up, Dave, we’re going to one of your favourite hangouts.’

Jessica was determined to get her colleague to offer something other than a sullen grunt of acknowledgement. She glanced sideways from the driver’s seat to Rowlands, who simply stared ahead. ‘Kid there,’ he said, nodding to the side of the road.

‘I can see him,’ Jessica protested, even though she hadn’t. Her reputation around the station as a bad driver had begun to die down over the past year or so but some people, chiefly Dave, perpetuated it.

‘Cyclist too,’ he added.

Jessica swerved exaggeratedly around the man on a bicycle. ‘Are you going to do this the whole journey?’

‘What?’

‘Point out potential hazards on the road.’

The constable laughed. ‘Maybe.’

‘At least you’re laughing.’

Dave didn’t reply, so Jessica thought she would push it while they were alone. ‘Come on, you can tell me what’s up. I know it isn’t just breaking up with Chloe – that was ages ago.’

‘It’s nothing,’ he snapped.

‘We’re supposed to be mates. I know you’ve told Izzy what’s going on.’

‘I haven’t actually because there’s nothing to tell.’

Jessica sighed noisily. ‘Why are all the men in my life acting mental at the moment?’

Rowlands shuffled in his seat. ‘Problems in paradise?’

Jessica couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic, so she took the question seriously. ‘Not really. Adam’s just being . . . man-like. You know, all “nothing’s wrong” and so on.’

‘That’s what you’re like.’

Jessica stayed quiet, watching the road, knowing the constable was right. She thought of all the times he, Izzy, Caroline, Adam and everyone else had asked her if she was ‘all right’, only to be met with her grumpy-sounding ‘I’m fine’, even when she wasn’t. She was more worried by the fact she had recognised that than anything else.

‘Either way, in all seriousness, have you been to this strip club?’ Jessica asked.

The constable sounded indignant. ‘Why would I have?’

‘I don’t know, before Chloe you were always going on about raucous nights out. I figured this would be the type of place you might be familiar with.’

‘Well, it’s not.’

‘All right. You’re not under caution. I believe you.’

Nicholas Long’s club was along a side street not far from Albert Square. The front was completely blacked out, with silver writing declaring it ‘Manchester’s Premier Gentlemen’s Establishment’.

Because they were only looking to talk to Nicholas in an unofficial way, they had contacted him and asked to arrange a meeting. They told him it was to discuss some of his former employees and hadn’t offered any further information. Given the choice of him coming to the station, or them visiting his house, he had reminded them he was ‘a very busy man’ and invited them to his club instead. Jessica didn’t know if he had done that to put them off but had accepted anyway, not even balking at the fact he wanted to talk in the evening. Cole had told her twice in their briefing to be careful, so she figured meeting on his terms was a good way to start.

From the times on the front window, Jessica knew the club had been open for less than five minutes. Before entering, she rested against the glass, leaning in closely to talk to Rowlands. ‘When we’re inside, just go with it.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘You’ll see.’

Before Rowlands had a chance to reply, Jessica pushed open the door, entering a darkened hallway. She led the way towards the light, where there was a man standing behind a counter sucking his little finger. He stopped as he noticed them approaching and stood taller, eyeing them up and down from a distance. He was tall but not particularly imposing and, on first impression, looked too young to be working in such a place. He had short brown hair that was gelled and spiked and it was only when Jessica got closer that she saw the beginnings of crinkles around his eyes that indicated an age somewhere in the early twenties, as opposed to the teens.