‘Can I give you a couple of names and ask if you know them?’ Jessica asked.

‘Sure but I’ve not lived here in a while.’

‘Do you know a “January Forrester”?’

Charlie shook his head. ‘Never heard of her. I’d probably remember someone with that first name but I don’t even recognise the surname.’

‘How about Lewis Barnes?’

The man screwed up his eyes. ‘I don’t think so. It rings a vague bell but maybe that’s just because the first and last names aren’t that uncommon? I can have a look in the house if you want? All of Ed’s photos and papers are still around – there might be something in those.’

Jessica wasn’t sure what to make of his reaction. It seemed genuine and perhaps she was being overly suspicious because of the complicated family setup. He hadn’t really done anything to alert her. ‘Okay, that would be good. Do you still have my number?’

‘Yes, I’ll call if I find anything.’

She knew it was a little premature as there was every chance the first hand didn’t belong to Ed but extra information couldn’t do any harm. Jessica glanced at the clock above the door, realising they had been talking for over an hour and a half. After making sure there was nothing else Charlie wanted to ask and assuring him she would let him know the results from the hand as soon as she had them, Jessica showed the man back out of the station, asking one of the officers to give him a lift home.

The rest of the afternoon was spent typing up her hand-written notes for the missing persons report. Jessica was a quick typist but reading her own writing was proving tricky. She was holding the paper a few inches from her face, squinting, when the phone on her desk rang. ‘Daniel,’ she answered.

‘Hi, I’m calling from Bradford Park with the results you wanted from this afternoon’s sample,’ a man’s voice said.

Bradford Park was the central hub where the force’s forensics work took place.

‘That was quick. What have you got?’ Jessica asked.

The person at the other end gulped. ‘I’ll email you over the confirmation but the swab came from a “Charlie Marks”, correct?’

‘Yes.’

‘That first hand comes from a direct relation of his.’

8

Jessica was in her office, with Izzy sitting on a chair across from her and Dave perched on DS Cornish’s desk. She had already told him once not to disturb the neat rows of photographs her office mate had laid out but was keeping a close eye as her colleague’s backside edged ever closer to the other sergeant’s family pictures.

‘What is going on with the heat?’ Rowlands asked, undoing his top button.

‘Er, funny story, that,’ Jessica said. ‘It was a bit chilly in here yesterday so I asked someone from admin if I could alter the thermostat. Unfortunately, a bit broke off.’

‘So the station’s entire air-conditioning system has stopped working because of you?’

‘No, because whoever installed it didn’t do a very good job,’ Jessica said defensively.

‘But it was you who broke it?’

‘It’s not like I wrenched the dial off, it just snapped. The engineers were in this morning and reckon it’s not just the dial. Apparently there was some knock-on effect and the whole thing has to be turned off.’

The constable took off his suit jacket, placing it across the desk while being careful not to nudge the various knick-knacks. He rolled his shirt sleeves up. ‘Brilliant, so we’ve all got to walk around sweltering because you’re bumbling around like the Incredible Hulk breaking things.’

‘You can’t blame me for the heatwave. Anyway, what the hell’s that on your arm?’ Jessica pointed to a tattoo on the constable’s inner forearm she hadn’t seen before.

‘It’s just a tattoo. I had it done a few weeks ago.’

Jessica stood and stepped forward to get a closer look. ‘What does it say?’

Rowlands didn’t seem too keen to talk about it. ‘It’s Chinese lettering,’ he said. ‘I picked it out of the guy’s folder. It means “Warrior”.’

Izzy giggled from her chair and Jessica glanced over to her, raising her eyebrows while re-taking her seat. ‘“Warrior?”’ Jessica said. ‘How is that appropriate? Do you go cage fighting in the evenings?’

‘Sod off, I just liked the shape of it.’ Rowlands twisted his arm around so he could see the marking.

‘Are you sure it doesn’t say “knob” or something like that?’ Izzy asked in between giggles. Jessica joined in the laughing.

‘All right, all right,’ Rowlands said, pointing at Jessica. ‘You’ve been hanging out with her for too long. What’s this, some sort of harem with the two wicked witches ganging up on me?’

‘In your dreams, mate,’ Jessica said. ‘Besides, from what I’ve heard, this is the most female attention you’ve had in months.’

Rowlands didn’t seem amused. ‘Why are you so obsessed with me? I know I’m charming and dazzlingly good-looking but your infatuation is almost worrying.’ Both women were openly laughing now. Dave nodded towards Izzy. ‘What’s with the bright red hair anyway? Are you a secret ginger?’

The two women exchanged amused looks. ‘What’s wrong with being ginger?’ Izzy asked.

‘Nothing, Ginge. You’re the one trying to cover it up.’

Jessica was grinning but knew it was time to get to business. ‘All right, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, a lot of the officers around here are stuck failing to find Christine Johnson. Jack let me pick who I wanted to work with and, because I’m losing my mind, I opted for you two. We’ve got uniform support when we need it but, for now, it’s just us. You know the first hand belongs to Ed Marks and we already knew the second comes from Lewis Barnes. Now it’s down to us to connect the dots.’

Despite the jovial atmosphere moments before, Jessica knew the two constables were professional enough to switch on when they needed to. The banter got them through the day and Jessica enjoyed it but they did have a job to do.

‘First things first,’ she continued. ‘We don’t actually know if these two are dead yet given the fact we’ve not found the rest of their bodies. Obviously the first issue is whether we’re looking at a murder investigation or a missing persons one. Given the length of time they’ve been gone – and having spoken to Jack earlier – I think it seems sensible to treat this as murder.’

The two officers were nodding as she spoke. ‘Dave, can you write this down? This is what we have to try to answer. First, are Lewis and Ed connected in any way other than going to the same college? Were they even friends? It seems too much of a coincidence for them to be total strangers. Second, can we connect January Forrester to Ed in any way? She’s still our only formal suspect but finding her isn’t too easy given we have hardly anyone else to help.’

Jessica looked to Izzy, who was playing with a strand of her long red hair as she spoke. ‘The calls have slowed to a stop. I spoke to the press office yesterday but they said the main media aren’t interested in publicising January’s photo. We’ve had a few mentions but no major coverage. It’s on the website for all the good that is but she’s gone to ground.’

Izzy looked back to a nodding Jessica for approval.

‘Exactly,’ Jessica replied. ‘Dave, find anyone connected to January you can and doorstep them. She could be hiding with a friend but someone must know where she’s gone. I don’t think she’s the type to live on the streets. Take an officer in case you do stumble across her and she runs.’

She winked at him, struggling to contain a mischievous grin as she remembered how out of breath he had been during their last chase.

‘Iz, I want you to carry on working from here. See if you can link Lewis and Ed or Ed and January. Just in case, see if we can get a list of everyone who finished sixth form at the same time as them. There’s no way we can contact them all to say they could be in danger, not that we know they are, but at least we’ll be prepared. While you fish around, you might find out they were all members of some school club or something.’