Molly nodded nervously, shuffling from one leg to the other before Reynolds gestured towards the chair. The young woman sat but stared at the table the two officers were seated behind, rather than focusing on them.

‘We wanted to talk to you about Sienna Todd, Molly. I understand you were one of her friends?’ Despite her frustration with the other young women, Jessica used the same reassuring tone she had tried with them.

Molly nodded. ‘Yeah.’

‘How well did you know her?’

‘Pretty well.’

‘We have been trying to find out if there was someone Sienna might have confided in? Maybe one friend she was closer to than anyone else . . . ?’ Jessica was trying to lead the girl, hoping for something other than one- or two-word responses.

Molly shrugged slightly but she appeared far more sombre than the rest of Sienna’s friends. They hadn’t seemed too keen to engage with the officers but the young woman in front of them was at least listening to the questions. ‘We have been friends a long time,’ Molly said. ‘Since primary school.’

‘Did Sienna ever confide in you about anything that could have led to what happened?’

Molly shook her head.

‘And you weren’t out with her on the night everything happened?’

Another head shake.

Jessica paused to think. ‘Do you mind if I say something that might sound a little harsh?’

Molly finally looked up and met Jessica’s gaze. Her eyes were wet but she wasn’t crying. ‘What?’

Jessica tried to sound as gentle as she could. ‘You seem very different from Sienna’s other friends. Perhaps Sienna herself? You dress differently, you walk differently. I don’t see how you fitted into their group.’

Molly laughed with no real joy. ‘You must be really good at your job to see that.’

It was a sarcastic remark but Jessica sensed no real spite to it. She tried to match the girl’s half-smile. ‘Tell me about Sienna.’

The young woman tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, clearly forcing herself not to cry but also suppressing a smile. ‘She wasn’t what you think.’

‘I don’t really think anything about her,’ Jessica said, largely telling the truth. ‘No one seems to know much other than her name and who she hung around with.’

‘Those other girls aren’t really her friends,’ Molly said, without prompting.

‘How do you mean?’

‘Her dad’s rich. He didn’t want Si to come here because he would have rather she went to a private college. They only latched on to her because she had money and didn’t mind spending it on them. That was all.’

Jessica had not met Sienna’s father because a support officer had been sent to tell him about what happened to his daughter. Because there was no murder or suspicious death investigation, she’d had no need to see him since. Despite that, Andrew Hunter had told her that Sienna’s father said he had allowed his daughter to go to a college he didn’t approve of because of her friends.

She wondered if it was one friend in particular.

‘Sienna came here to stay close to you, didn’t she?’ Jessica asked.

Molly smiled and nodded. ‘We were at school together. Best mates and all that. Her dad wasn’t rich then but he left Si’s mum and moved to this house out of the city when he made his money. We were about fourteen or fifteen. Si stayed with him but refused to change schools and then she wanted to come here with me. She was on this beauty course thing, even though she’s not interested in it. She was only doing it do we could carry on being friends.’

‘What course do you do?’ Jessica asked.

‘English lit but it’s on this campus.’

‘Is that why Sienna chose a course to do here?’ Molly shrugged but offered a half-nod at the same time. ‘Why did she hang around with those other girls if they’re not really her friends?’ Jessica asked.

Molly scratched her forehead and wiped her eyes. ‘She liked being liked.’

‘What about you?’

The young woman blinked rapidly and looked towards the door. ‘I liked her.’ The connotations of the ways she used the word ‘liked’ and then emphasised ‘her’ on the final occasion was not lost on Jessica. She didn’t know if it was fair to ask the question but Molly answered it anyway, as if sensing Jessica’s dilemma. ‘Si wasn’t like that if you’re wondering.’

‘Why do you think she might have killed herself?’ Jessica asked, trying not to sound overly blunt.

Molly shuffled uneasily in her chair, still looking towards the door. ‘I don’t know.’ Her words sounded shaky and untrue.

‘Did you know Sienna had an abortion?’ The young woman shook her head but Jessica could see it was a lie. The other girls had struggled to hide their surprise but Molly barely reacted. ‘Do you know if Sienna was seeing anyone?’

‘No.’

‘You don’t know or she definitely wasn’t?’

‘She wasn’t going out with anyone.’

The fact Sienna didn’t appear to have a regular boyfriend was at least something all of her friends, plus Ryan, agreed on. From the second-hand information Andrew had passed to her, it seemed that was the impression her father was under too.

‘Did you know Sienna cut herself?’ Jessica asked.

Molly winced slightly and tugged at the sleeve of her own shirt, pulling it down further. ‘I didn’t know,’ she replied, although Jessica couldn’t judge whether the response was genuine.

‘How well do you know Ryan Chadwick?’

Jessica saw the young woman stiffen, her arms locked to her side momentarily and her expression taut. A strand of hair unhooked itself from behind Molly’s ear and drifted across her face. She did nothing to move it.

‘Molly?’

‘He’s one of the lads. Si knew him better than I did.’

‘Was she ever in a relationship with him?’

Molly spoke without thinking. ‘I don’t know.’

‘What do you think of him?’

The young woman pushed out her bottom lip and then sucked it in, chewing on it anxiously. ‘I don’t really know him.’

‘But he hung around with the people you hung around with?’ Jessica had seen similar responses from the other girls but no one seemed to want to give her any further information. She sensed that Molly was close if she could find the right way in.

The woman shrugged and stared towards the door once more. ‘Can I go?’

Jessica sighed. ‘Are you sure there isn’t something else you might want to tell me? About your friend? Or Ryan? Something important? We’re trying to help.’

Molly didn’t reply but Jessica saw her gulp, her eyes blinking furiously. ‘I have to go,’ she eventually said.

The two women stood at the same time, Reynolds continuing to sit. Jessica could sense he felt uncomfortable and she thought how Izzy would have been a much better bet to come along if she wasn’t on maternity leave.

Before Molly could reach the door, Jessica caught her. ‘Hang on,’ she said, taking a business card out of her jacket pocket along with a pen. The printed part included the station’s phone number but Jessica turned it over and pressed against the doorframe to add her mobile number, passing it to Molly. ‘Call me any time – even if it’s late.’

The young woman took the card and pushed it into her jeans pocket, before opening the door and letting herself out without reply.

Jessica turned to face Reynolds, who was now standing next to the table. ‘I’m going back to the car,’ he said. ‘You should come too.’

‘Don’t you see it?’ Jessica asked, stifling her frustration. ‘Everyone has the same reaction when we talk to them about Ryan. There’s something not right with him.’

The inspector shook his head. ‘You’re seeing what you want to. He was aggressive at the house because you tried to provoke him. He was always going to be upset after the fire. Then these girls, they’re telling you they don’t really know him but you’re not listening.’

He didn’t sound angry, more annoyed. If anything, that made it harder for Jessica to judge his mood. She had seen him lose his temper in the past but never with her. She didn’t know if he was genuinely annoyed, or simply trying to give her advice.