‘No,’ Jessica said. ‘The interview room’s set up. You’re not under arrest and can leave any time you want but sometimes it’s better to get things on tape anyway. It’s for your own protection.’

‘Okay.’

Jessica took Emily to the interview room where she had sat across from Wayne Lapham just seven days ago. A uniformed officer was left with Kim, who hadn’t run out at the mention of them being able to leave. Cole was already waiting for them and Jessica said there was a solicitor available if Emily wanted it.

‘I’ve not got anything to hide,’ Emily replied. Before Cole could start the tape, she added: ‘Don’t mind her. She’s had it tough. She was always the closest to Mum too.’

Jessica nodded as Cole made the introductions. ‘When did you last see your mother?’ Jessica asked first.

Emily spoke clearly and eloquently. She was obviously intelligent and came across very well. ‘Not for a while, we didn’t really get on. Maybe a month ago?’

‘Why didn’t you get along?’

‘I didn’t approve of her . . . job.’

‘I’m sorry to ask this but, for the record, can you say what she did?’ Jessica knew the answer.

‘She slept with men for money.’

Jessica didn’t want to dwell the point. ‘What was she like the last time you saw her?’

‘The same as always. High.’

‘She did drugs?’ Jessica hadn’t seen any obvious paraphernalia at the house but hadn’t gone looking too closely.

‘Where do you think all the money went?’ Emily said as if it was obvious. ‘She somehow scraped together enough to buy that dump a few years ago and the rest went up her arms.’

‘How long ago did you move out?’

‘I don’t know. I didn’t spend a lot of time at home anyway. Maybe five years ago? I’m twenty-three now so work it out. That place was never going to be big enough for us all.’

Emily went on to tell them that she lived with her boyfriend and year-old son in the north of the city. Somehow, despite everything, Emily had turned into a rounded adult. She and her partner had founded a promotions company and were apparently doing well for themselves.

‘Tell me about your sister,’ Jessica said.

‘Kim? She’s only eighteen, a kid. She just moved out a few months ago and got a job selling bags and stuff. I would have got her something better but she wanted to do it for herself. For a while I thought Claire was going to drag her down to her level.’

It was the first time she had directly referred to her mother. She hadn’t called her ‘Mum’ or anything similar.

‘Claire?’ Jessica queried.

‘If someone doesn’t act like your mother, you can’t really call them that, can you?’

Jessica nodded, trying not to give anything away through her expression. ‘So your mother lived alone?’

‘Yes.’

‘No boyfriend?’

Emily laughed but not with any conviction. ‘What do you think? A different boyfriend every night maybe, nothing more than that.’

‘What about your father?’

‘Who knows? He left a long time ago.’

‘How long?’

‘Eight or nine years back. Kim wouldn’t have even been ten by then.’

‘Do you know why he left?’

‘No.’

‘Wasn’t it something you ever talked about?’

Emily shook her head. ‘Claire did all of her talking through a bottle back then.’

‘Have you seen your father since he left?’

‘No.’

‘Whose choice?’

‘What choice? I wouldn’t even know where to start looking. One day he was there, the next he wasn’t. I was only fifteen or so. Claire spent the first two weeks telling us he was away on business.’

‘How long has your mother been . . . working like this?’

‘Not forever. We had a pretty decent childhood, believe it or not. Two-up, two-down, summers at the seaside and all that. Then Dad moved out and Claire eventually fell apart. A few years later we all ended up moving to that shithole. There was never much space for me, so I left straight away.’

Jessica took Emily’s dad’s name from her – they would check him out if possible. Some people dropped off the face of the earth when they walked out on their wife and kids. Others hooked up with different women and paid child maintenance but, given Emily said she hadn’t seen her father in all that time, it seemed likely he would fall into the first category. Jessica doubted there was any Child Support Agency file on him and thought finding him would prove quite a task – and that was if he had even kept the same name.

She stopped to think what to say next. From what she had seen at the scene, the neck wounds and the way the flat was secured, her first thoughts were obviously that this murder was related to the other two. But while the first two had happened to people most of the public would consider ‘normal’, this was a bit different. That wasn’t to devalue a life, just that a drug-addicted prostitute was always going to be likely to attract people who might see her as vulnerable and want to do her harm. Could Claire Hogan really be connected to Yvonne Christensen and Martin Prince in some way?

Cole had brought in the hard-copy files they had for the other victims, the ones Jessica had caught Ryan looking through. She took out a photo of Yvonne Christensen from before she had been murdered and handed it to Emily. ‘Do you know who this is?’

Emily looked at the photo and narrowed her eyes. ‘She sort of seems familiar.’ Jessica felt her heart give a slight jump but her hopes were instantly let down again. ‘She’s been in the papers and on TV, hasn’t she?’

‘Yes.’

‘She was killed too. This “Houdini” guy.’

Jessica still hated that nickname but it wasn’t the time to argue about it. ‘Yes.’

‘Do you think whoever killed her killed Claire too?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘I just thought . . . when the officer told me . . .’ She tailed off, struggling to find the words. ‘I suppose I’ve been expecting something like this for ages now. Given what she did for a living . . .’

Jessica let the thought evaporate and then handed her a picture of Martin Prince. Emily knew them both but only from the media coverage. ‘Do you know of anyone who might want to harm your mother?’

‘Her clients? I don’t know. No one specifically. Kim is closer to her than I am. She visits her a couple of times a week.’

‘Do you have a key for the flat, Emily?’

Emily laughed, again with nothing really behind it. ‘I’ve never had one.’

‘What about Kim?’

‘I don’t think so. You’ll have to ask her. Claire never gave any of us keys – she didn’t want anyone walking in on her. Kim used to come and stay at ours some nights when she couldn’t get in. There was no room there anyway. When it was the three of them, Claire, Shaun and Kim, Shaun used to sleep on the sofa with Mum and Kim sharing. It was ridiculous.’

‘Is Shaun your brother?’

‘Yes.’

‘Where is he?’

‘You should know.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You lot banged him up two years ago.’

26

Shaun Hogan had been very easy to track down. He was currently three months away from potentially being paroled in HM Prison Leeds.

Jessica had first gone to talk to Kim and then returned to her desk to look up their brother. Kim hadn’t been too keen to speak at first but they brought her sister in to sit next to her and the aggression level dropped. Much of what she said confirmed what they had already been told by Emily.

Kim lived in a flat half a mile or so away from her mother and had reluctantly admitted she’d had enough of living with her mum a few months previously. When she had lived at home, Kim wasn’t allowed a key and there were certain hours of the day where she wasn’t permitted to be inside, instead spending her time roaming the streets. Despite being only eighteen, she had done that for the best part of five years.