Jessica edged into the alley, following it until the end where another officer was waiting. At first he stuck out an arm to block her path but then he recognised her. ‘I thought you’d gone?’ he said.

‘Me too.’

Three pylons had been set up in a triangle, each with a bright white light on the top angled to illuminate an area surrounded by wooden pallets. A white screen had also been erected and Jessica watched a figure in a white paper suit lift a flap and enter the shielded area.

As she walked towards it, Jessica could see Cole’s familiar shape speaking into his mobile phone. While he talked, he raised his free hand to acknowledge her presence and then pointed to the phone, rolling his eyes. After a few moments, he removed it from his ear, pressing a button before pocketing it. ‘The wife’s not happy,’ he said with a weary half-smile. ‘We were supposed to be going out for a meal tonight.’

‘I was supposed to be sitting in with a microwave lasagne watching TV,’ Jessica replied with a smile.

Although they hadn’t been getting on, she couldn’t stop herself from trying to get a laugh.

Cole’s smile widened but he didn’t crack. ‘I told them not to call you but apparently you’d left instructions that you were available all night . . .’

Jessica ignored his part-question, part-fish-for-information. ‘What’s going on?’

The chief inspector nodded behind her towards a man who was talking to a uniformed officer close to one of the pylons. ‘He called 999, saying he’d found the body of a teenage girl. Her wrists have been slit but quite high up and it looks like an artery was hit rather than the vein. There’s blood everywhere. You can go have a look if you want but there’s not much to see if you’re not a haemo . . . what’s the name for that blood weirdo we picked up the other month?’

Jessica pulled a face to show she was happy to stay where she was. ‘A haemogoblin. You shouldn’t know what something like that is. Anyway, who’s the girl?’ She saw the DCI’s face harden. ‘What?’ she added.

The chief inspector nodded at the man again. ‘He knows her – he says her name is Sienna Todd.’

Jessica knew immediately that things weren’t straightforward. ‘What am I missing? What’s her body doing back here?’ she asked, not knowing the best question to go for.

She saw Cole’s eyes narrow slightly. ‘You’re better talking to him directly,’ he said. ‘You won’t like it – I’m not sure I do.’

Confused, Jessica turned and walked towards the man. The uniformed officer was in the process of pocketing a notebook and then stepped backwards, giving her a nod of acknowledgement. Jessica turned her attention to the man. He was somewhere around her age, not a lot taller, with a slightly overweight physique. He didn’t seem to have a large stomach but his white shirt was a little too small for him, giving the impression that he had breasts. Even though it wasn’t a particularly warm evening, Jessica could see beads of sweat on his forehead, illuminated in the glow from the white lights.

Jessica had often thought Cole had relatively plain features but, as he aged, his looks had become more distinctive, the worry lines and crinkles around his eyes giving him more of a personality. His plainness was nothing compared to that of the man in front of her. He had a face that was instantly forgettable and, although Jessica had dealt with hundreds of situations where she had been frustrated by witnesses’ lack of attention to detail, she wasn’t sure she would have been able to describe his features – even while she was staring straight at him.

‘I’m told you found the body?’ Jessica asked tentatively, remembering Cole’s suggestion that she might not like what the man would say.

‘Yes, are you . . . ?’ The man was staring past her towards the stack of pallets.

Jessica introduced herself and then asked for the man’s name.

‘I’m Andrew Hunter,’ he replied. ‘I’m an, er . . . private investigator.’

She knew why Cole had been hesitant and felt herself rolling her eyes without thinking.

‘Is she something to do with you?’ Jessica asked, knowing the man could be a suspect if there was anything suspicious about the young woman’s death.

Andrew stuttered his way through a reply. ‘I was following her. I lost sight for maybe five minutes – ten minutes at most – before I found her like . . . this.’

‘Why were you trailing her?’

Andrew explained that Sienna’s father had paid him to find out who had impregnated his daughter. Cole was exactly right in his assessment – Jessica didn’t like it. She asked if Andrew had seen anyone else following the young woman but he said he hadn’t.

After double-checking they had his details, Jessica told the man he could go but that she would visit him the following morning. He said he had photographs of a young man who Sienna seemed to be romantically involved with which she wanted to see.

Jessica walked across to Cole, who raised his eyebrows and smiled. His tired eyes didn’t offer the same sentiment his lips did.

‘Making friends?’ he asked.

Jessica snorted as a response. ‘At least you warned me.’

‘What do you think about his story?’

Jessica stepped closer to her supervisor, partly so she wouldn’t be overheard but also because her hands were beginning to feel cold. She blew onto her skin, before burying her hands deep into the pockets of the jacket she still hadn’t returned. ‘It sounds about right. I don’t think he would have called us if something else was going on. There are cameras around so we’ll get the footage. I told him I’ll visit him tomorrow to pick up some of the photographs he has of Sienna.’

Cole nodded. Jessica had always been given a relatively free rein to do what she wanted for a case. It had brought results in the past and she played on that. If the chief inspector had any objections then he didn’t raise them.

‘Is it definitely a suicide?’ Jessica asked.

Cole tilted his head to one side and bit his lip. ‘It looks like it. I only saw it briefly but one of the crime scene guys says there are cuts diagonally across her wrists, rather than up and down or side to side. He seemed to know his stuff.’

Jessica nodded. ‘I had a witness a couple of years back who self-harmed. She said there are all sorts of websites out there with the information. She told me about how different blades offered varying amounts of pain and relief. She knew more about arteries, veins and blood than I ever will. Maybe it was just her – but the impression I got was that self-harmers generally know what they’re doing and only go this far if they want to.’

Cole stared beyond her into the darkness. ‘Why would you do it?’

Jessica didn’t know if he was talking about self-harming or the apparent suicide. She knew he had younger children and wondered if he was associating them with Sienna.

She rested a hand on his shoulder, the most contact they had had in months. ‘Some people cut themselves because the physical pain helps with whatever it is they’re dealing with emotionally. But she would probably know the difference between veins and arteries if she was a regular self-harmer. If you cut a vein, you wouldn’t bleed to death that quickly, which would make this a deliberate thing. If this was the first time she had tried something, she might have cut herself in the wrong place. The post mortem should give us a few answers.’ Jessica paused for a moment. ‘I take it there’s a knife or something?’

‘We found some small, curved nail scissors near her feet.’

A shiver went through Jessica. She knew the kind of blades he was talking about because Adam had a pair in the bathroom cabinet. For whatever reason, that made things seem more real.

‘Has someone gone to tell her family?’ she asked.

Cole sighed. ‘That’s sorted. I’m going to head home as soon as the body has been moved. You may as well head off too.’ Jessica knew there wasn’t much more they could do. By the morning, they would have a reasonable idea of whether it was suicide. ‘What about Chadwick and Thompson?’ the chief inspector added.