Cole nodded. Jessica looked back to Adam, who had been watching her and quickly moved his gaze as she turned. ‘Okay, are there any other possibilities?’ Jessica asked. ‘Could someone plant evidence or anything like that?’

Adam puffed his cheeks out and blew through his teeth. ‘Maybe but it’s pretty hard. For one, if you had blood from Mr McKenna, you would have to keep it sterile in some way . . .’

‘. . . so the blood didn’t get contaminated.’ Jessica finished his sentence again and inwardly kicked herself for doing so. Finishing each other’s thoughts was what old married couples did.

Adam looked a little confused but didn’t react. ‘Exactly. If it wasn’t kept properly, you would contaminate the blood you had taken and it would be useless. But, even if that’s what had been done and you had kept it all clean, you would still be up against it because the crime scene would have to look right.’

Jessica knew exactly what he was talking about but let him continue. ‘Maybe if it was hairs or something like that on a body or at a scene, someone could have placed them in a clever way but it wasn’t hairs we found. There was blood which had mainly dried directly under the nail.’

He moved his hands up in front of his chest to illustrate his point. ‘If someone was trying to stab you, you might try to grab their wrist to stop the blade. If you snatched hard enough, you could break the skin and that’s how you would end up with someone’s blood underneath your fingernails. That’s exactly what it looks like; it’s not as if there was loads of blood but you wouldn’t expect there to be.’

‘In other words, it would be pretty hard to fake getting dried blood under the victim’s nails.’

‘Right. Not impossible but you would have to really know what you were doing.’

Adam risked another look up from the table towards Jessica but looked away when he saw she was still watching him. She noticed he had deep brown eyes, the type which sometimes looked as if there was no separate pupil because they were so dark.

Jessica looked to Cole and widened her eyes as if to ask, ‘Anything else?’

He took the hint and stood, offering his hand for Adam to shake. ‘Thanks very much for your help, Mr Compton.’ Jessica shook his hand too.

‘Can I, er . . . do you mind if I give you my phone number?’ Adam had clearly asked Jessica, not Cole. ‘Just in case, y’know . . . if you want to check anything else or whatever? You don’t have to . . .’

Jessica pulled her own mobile phone out and typed his details into it, ignoring the knowing smile she knew Cole would be giving her.

‘You already gave me your number, so I can text you if need be?’

Jessica had forgotten she had given Adam her number over the phone. Technically it had been for professional purposes but she guessed the ‘need be’ could end up being some sort of invitation for a pint or something. Given the guy’s nervous behaviour, she couldn’t imagine he had ever asked a girl out in person.

‘Okay,’ she said. Adam turned and walked back towards the door, tripping over in the exact same spot as before. Jessica smiled and turned back to her colleague.

‘I didn’t say a word,’ Cole said. He hadn’t had to, his raised eyebrow said it all.

Back at the station, it was now pushing late afternoon and clocking-off time. Jessica wasn’t too bothered by keeping to set hours and most of the team ended up working unpaid overtime as and when required. Jessica had gone over their records and, according to everything they had on file, Donald McKenna was an only child. He was born locally and she would send some poor constable out to check the register office’s records but there was no reason to think there would be a mistake in the information she had access to. Names could sometimes be spelled wrong but she had never known an instance where an entire person was simply missing from a record.

From everything Adam had told them, Jessica could only see three possibilities. First, someone had access to the inmate’s blood and somewhere to store it securely, plus the knowledge of how to plant it at a scene. Second, Donald McKenna had an identical twin, not just a brother or sister, who no one knew about. Third, the prisoner had simply walked unnoticed out of a maximum-security prison and stabbed someone to death before returning.

Regardless of which option was correct, it was going to take some figuring out.

6

The media hadn’t bothered reporting the stabbing of Craig Millar in much detail. Some crimes were given more prominence than others when it came to running orders on news bulletins or the front pages of newspapers. Jessica always made a point to look for how her cases were being reported. It seemed clear that whoever was in charge of the various decisions relating to the importance of the story had decided a dead young man on an estate notorious for anti-social behaviour didn’t rank too highly. Jessica sighed at the front-page story in the local paper about a soap star who was having a baby.

She was sitting on the corner of Rowlands’s desk on the main floor of the station and held the paper up for him to see. ‘Why are people interested in the contents of the uterus of whoever this person is?’

It was a rhetorical question she didn’t really expect an answer to. She got one anyway.

‘I’d pay special attention if it were me.’ Jessica rolled her eyes. ‘You’re a real charmer, Dave?’ He winked at her. ‘So what do you want me to do with this list then?’ he asked.

Jessica grinned. ‘Well, you know you put together all those names of people who might have it in for Craig Millar? I want you to put together another list for people who could have it in for, or be associated with, Donald McKenna. Then I want you to check the lists with each other to see if anyone shows up twice.’

‘You are joking?’

‘I’ll leave you this to keep you company.’ Jessica dropped the paper on his lap, with the front-page photo of the soap star on top. ‘Have fun.’

It was the day after her visits to see Donald McKenna and Adam Compton and Jessica knew she would definitely have to return to the prison. The governor would have to be put in the picture this time so Detective Superintendent William Aylesbury was going to make the initial contact and then Jessica and DI Cole would visit. DSI Aylesbury had been the DCI at Longsight up until six months ago. He had been the natural replacement when the previous incumbent had retired. Jessica hadn’t really got on with the chief inspector until the last few months of his spell at the station where she had begun to understand the way he worked. His promotion meant he was no longer based at the same station as her because he had jurisdiction over multiple stations in the area and the local chief inspectors were answerable to him. Jessica had seen him once or twice since his elevation and he always said ‘hello’ to her.

Given the strange nature of the test results, it was felt someone far more senior than them should be the one who filled the governor in. No one was directly accusing him of a failure but he would be asked to double-check the security arrangements on the particular wing Donald McKenna was housed on. Coming from someone as senior as the DSI meant he couldn’t complain. The key thing was, no one was accusing the prison of being negligent, they simply didn’t know what had happened.

Having spoken to Rowlands, Jessica exited the main floor and headed to Cole’s office. She found him typing on his keyboard. ‘Is he ready for us yet?’ Jessica flicked her eyes upwards, indicating the floor above and the DCI’s office.

‘Yes but he’s not in a good mood. I don’t think he liked having to make that call to Aylesbury earlier.’