He rolled his eyes and fake-yawned. ‘That’s a new one. Anyway, where are you going?’

Jessica stood up from the desk and reached around to gently knead her lower back where it was beginning to ache again. ‘I’ve got someone to speak to. Call me if you find anyone who is connected to more than one person on that list.’

She turned to leave but the constable added: ‘What’s up with your back?’

She shook her head. ‘Nothing.’

‘It’s your age,’ Rowlands replied with a smirk.

Jessica grinned at him. ‘Just for that I want full records for Lancashire and Cheshire as well. Now get on with it – chop, chop. One more word and it’s Merseyside too.’

Jessica wriggled to get comfortable in her car seat, trying to ignore Rowlands’s probably fair point about her back pain being down to her age and wondering how Andrew Hunter did what he did. She had been watching the garage Ryan Chadwick worked at for over twenty minutes and, aside from someone dropping off their vehicle, she hadn’t seen anything of note.

After checking with Martin about his son’s whereabouts, Jessica set off to have another word with Ryan, not entirely sure what she was going to say. She remembered Andrew telling her how he would watch and take photos of people, blending into the scenery and going unseen. Jessica thought all of that might be true but it was also pretty boring.

The garage was located just off Stockport Road roughly halfway between where Ryan’s house had been and the city centre. The red brick of the building had turned greyish and a large set of double sliding doors painted blue were exactly in the centre, opening out onto the road. At one end was an office, with a smaller double-glazed door that had a sign in a matching blue over the top advertising cheap MOTs.

As she watched, one half of the blue metal doors slid open noisily. A mechanic wearing a grey sweatshirt and jeans that had long been abandoned to oil and dirt emerged. He walked over to a car that had been parked on the road and then climbed inside and drove it through the door, which moments later was hauled shut again.

Jessica was on the brink of phoning Andrew to tell him what she thought of his job when the door opened a small amount and Ryan emerged, closing it behind him. He was wearing a far cleaner pair of jeans than the previous person who had exited and he was in the process of pulling on an olive green army-type jacket which reached his knees. He pulled a mobile phone out of his trouser pocket and walked along the road talking into it. Jessica waited for a couple of vehicles to pass and then got out of her car, locking it behind her and hurrying after the young man.

The air was cool, a breeze blowing across her, chilling her face and making her shiver. Jessica pulled her jacket tighter and followed Ryan around a corner that led towards an alleyway she knew would open onto the main road. As she moved around the bend still trying to adjust her coat, Jessica collided with something and stepped back in surprise. Looking up, she saw Ryan glaring at her, his grey eyes narrow and formidable.

‘Why are you following me?’ he asked. His voice was calm but his top lip was twitching.

‘Where were you last night?’ she asked, ignoring his question.

He glared at Jessica, clearly struggling to control himself. ‘Didn’t you have someone taking pictures of me?’

‘Should I have?’ Jessica knew she had to be careful.

‘Why aren’t you out catching the man who burned our house down? You know who did it.’

Jessica knew she either shouldn’t have come or should have thought through what she wanted to say. She struggled for words before eventually replying. ‘We’re still looking into it.’

Ryan swore and spat on the ground. ‘You know who did it! He said in the paper he was going to.’

‘We don’t know.’

‘So what’s this all about? That slag Sienna? I told you I don’t know anything.’ Ryan shook his head and stomped on the ground. Jessica doubted he was aware he was doing it, but it was clear he couldn’t control his anger.

‘You shouldn’t say things like that. She’s dead.’

Jessica was trying to be sincere and Ryan clearly sensed it. He smiled broadly. ‘Why are you upset over her? Is it all the dick she got? Do you fancy some too?’

He reached down to grab for his crotch but had barely touched himself when Jessica slapped him hard across the face. It was instinctive and something she instantly regretted. She stepped away as Ryan reached up to his lip where a small smear of blood had appeared. The teenager stared at the red liquid dribbling down his fingers and then back up to her.

‘I’m sorry, I . . .’ Jessica began but Ryan glared through her before turning and walking away. He hadn’t said a word but he didn’t need to as his eyes gave her a very simple message.

‘You’ll regret that’.

16

It was little comfort to Jessica as the verdict on Sienna’s death was finally confirmed as suicide the following day. It wasn’t that she had been hoping for something else, just that it made things harder to comprehend.

Jessica was sitting in a quiet corner of the station’s canteen reading through the coroner’s initial paperwork but there was nothing that jumped out at her, not that she would have expected it to. Knowing the information would make its way into the media sooner or later, Jessica called Andrew Hunter and told him the news.

He was silent for a few moments before responding. ‘Have you told Harley yet?’

‘Not me, no, but someone will do.’

She heard the investigator taking a deep breath. ‘I saw him last night. He’s in a hotel in the centre. He had a laptop on the bed and seemed determined to work nonstop. When I met him a few weeks ago he was this big, influential man but he doesn’t have that aura about him now. I tried to tell him I didn’t want his money but he wouldn’t listen.’

‘So what are you investigating?’

Andrew gave a small laugh but it didn’t sound as if there was any humour to it. ‘Honestly? I don’t know. He seems to think there’s this conspiracy involving his daughter and his house. It’s not like I could stand there and tell the guy not to be silly. He practically forced me to carry on working for him.’

Jessica was beginning to warm to the man. She had no real opinion of the occupation, thinking that most private investigators were retired police officers. Aside from taking photographs of people, she didn’t know what he actually did but he did seem to care about his work, which was more than she could say for a handful of people she worked with.

‘What are you going to do?’ she asked.

‘I don’t know. What do you think? Do you reckon the fire could be linked to Sienna?’

Jessica hadn’t revealed her reasons for taking the printouts of the photographs from Andrew, so he didn’t know about the connection to Ryan.

‘I’m not sure,’ Jessica said. ‘Why would they be?’

She was hoping Andrew might offer her something she hadn’t thought of. The man sighed again. ‘I was hoping you could tell me.’

If she hadn’t have been feeling so hopeless, Jessica might have laughed. They were each relying on the other to provide some sort of reasoning for what had happened. Jessica said goodbye and told Andrew to stay in contact.

She walked back to her office, where Reynolds was heading along the corridor towards her. ‘Bad news?’ Jessica asked, reading the serious look on his face.

‘Not really,’ he replied, holding some papers out towards her.

Jessica took them, holding them to her side. ‘What are they?’

The inspector smiled. ‘You could try reading them.’

‘I’ve got far more literate people like you to do that for me.’