Jessica had a similar problem with losing her keys and phone and knew exactly where the story was going as Daisy took another drink before tucking a strand of her short hair behind her ear and continuing.

‘The insurance company are being arsey about it because they say they haven’t yet determined if I’m to blame. Either way, I’d hung my keys up as usual a few nights ago after going to the supermarket. I work from home, so I’d done some stuff on the computer, watched a bit of TV, and then gone to bed. I came down the next morning and had been working but then I had to meet a client. I went to the rack but the car keys were missing. It was after lunch and I’d not even noticed. I checked everywhere because at first I thought I’d forgotten to hang them up. Then, after about half an hour, I looked outside and realised the bloody car was gone.’

Daisy was speaking more and more quickly, as if she couldn’t get the words out fast enough. She had also begun to play with her hair, pulling strands out from behind her ear and curling them with her fingers before tucking them away again.

‘I didn’t know what to think,’ she added. ‘I called you, of course, and the guy on the phone said he thought someone might have hooked my keys out through the letterbox. I went and had a look but there was no sign, although I’m not sure that there would be. The investigators came round and said they were looking for footprints or fingerprints but didn’t seem to find anything. They didn’t sound confident but left me with a number to give to the insurance company. Then I got the call yesterday saying my car had been in an accident. That’s about it really.’

Izzy had been taking notes, although Jessica knew Daisy hadn’t revealed anything they didn’t already know. She let her colleague finish writing before moving on. ‘How long have you lived here, Daisy?’

‘Not long, a few months. I work as a rep for this electronics company. They’re based in London but trying to break into the north. They pay half the rent because it counts as an office and I pay the rest. The money’s good, which is one thing, I guess. I’ve still got a flat down south, which is where most of my stuff is. I don’t know if this is going to be a long-term thing yet.’

Jessica resisted the urge to smile at having her suspicions confirmed and took a sip of her own tea. She asked some follow-up questions about whether Daisy had seen anyone suspicious, or if she knew anyone locally who was familiar with her domestic situation. The lack of a clear photo of the driver didn’t give them much else to work with. It seemed pretty clear Daisy was simply waiting for the call so she could move back south and hadn’t made much effort to integrate into the area.

As they were getting ready to leave, Jessica’s phone rang. She apologised to Daisy and stepped quickly into the hallway.

Rowlands’s mobile number flashed onto the screen. ‘What’s up?’ Jessica asked.

‘Are you on your way back?’

She knew her colleague well enough to know from his tone that he was excited about something. ‘Not quite, we’re just leaving. What’s going on?’

Rowlands paused as if for dramatic effect. ‘We know where the key comes from.’

4

Jessica felt a small surge in her chest as she always did when something important happened. She resisted the temptation to say anything nice. ‘Took you long enough. Where’s it from?’

Rowlands laughed. ‘I knew you’d be appreciative. We’re pretty sure it comes from an allotment shed. We’d been going around in circles talking to hotels and the like, and then one of the uniform boys came in and reckoned his dad had a key just like it. We spoke to the council who were as useful as ever but they put us on to some allotment society secretary guy who knew what he was talking about. We emailed him a photo of the key and he knew straight away where it was from. He said something about it being colour-coded by the fob. Anyway, we’re heading out there now. The DCI was going to phone you to say to meet there but then he got called away along with Jason.’

‘Have we got anything back from the clothes we found?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘Right, where am I meeting you?’

‘You know the reservoir out Gorton way? There’s a big plot near there. Just call if you can’t find it but we’ll wait for you.’

Jessica hung up and quickly said her goodbyes to Daisy before heading off in the car with Izzy. The rain had finally stopped and she could feel the beginnings of that buzz that could herald finding something horrific or something else that could help break a case.

‘You were right about the woman,’ Izzy said after Jessica had found her way off the estate back onto the main road.

‘When I’m not comparing people’s unborn children to salted snacks I’m not too bad.’

Izzy laughed. ‘I don’t know how you get to a point where you just see things.’

Jessica shrugged with one shoulder as she continued to drive. ‘Practice. When I first got out of uniform there was this old DI guy called Harry who let me tag along. He seemed to know everyone and everything. We were around this bloke’s house once for an interview. He asked if I wanted tea. I wasn’t fussed and said “no” but then Harry asked for one anyway. I was annoyed because I thought he was wasting time but then, while the guy was in the kitchen, Harry was poking around and sizing the place up. He reckoned you should never turn down a drink whether you want one or not because, while the owner’s away from the room, it gives you a chance to look at the walls, the furniture and the carpets, things like that, and assess what you might be up against.’

‘Clever.’

‘I know. Sometimes you’ll be talking to actual suspects, but most of the time it’ll just be a witness. Either way, you never know what might happen or whether someone might slip up, so you learn to look for things.’

‘Like what?’

‘I don’t know, maybe stray shoes in a hallway? What size are they? Could they be male, female or a child’s? That kind of thing. It gives you a feel of the type of circumstance someone might be living in. Daisy seems pretty straight-up but it does sound as if whoever took her car knew about her living arrangements. Who knows, maybe they’d knocked on her door once and saw the keys hanging?’

‘Like a postman?’

‘Or a neighbour or someone else that knew she was an outsider living on her own. She said she didn’t recognise the photo of the driver but perhaps that just means someone else took the vehicle? Something about him needing a map still doesn’t sit right. Ultimately, you get used to picking up on these things.’

Izzy paused for a few moments, taking in Jessica’s words. ‘So what’s this Harry guy’s last name? Does he work in a different district?’

‘It’s Harry Thomas. He’s . . . retired.’ Jessica felt uneasy talking about the man. He had been stabbed in a bar fight a few years previously and, after spiralling down into alcoholism, had had to quit the force while the person who attacked him was acquitted by a jury. It then emerged he could have been involved in inadvertently protecting Randall Anderson, the serial killer who tried to murder Jessica and was currently in a high-security hospital. Only Jessica knew about his possible connection to Harry but she had never looked into it properly for fear of finding out it was true. At least by not knowing she still had some good memories of the person who had mentored her but if those were taken away, she’d have nothing but bitterness.

Perhaps it was Jessica’s tone but Izzy didn’t pursue the question. Instead they drove in relative silence, even when they were held up in unexpected traffic at Ardwick Green. Suited and booted crowds were streaming out of the theatre, even though it was the afternoon, leading Jessica to assume there was a corporate event going on. If she had been driving a marked car, she would have flicked on the lights but instead she waited with as much patience as she could muster.