“I am. Honest,” Hamza insisted. The windscreen wipers whumped back and forth, battling valiantly against the hammering rain. He passed the graveyard that stood on the outskirts of the town, and his car ploughed on into the dark as he left Portree behind. “I didn’t wake Kamila did I?”

“No.” Amira yawned again. “No, I don’t think so.”

“Right. Well, that’s good. I’m glad,” Hamza said. Another lie. What he wouldn’t have given right then to have heard her voice. To hear her smile. “Well, I should let you go. It’s late.”

“Hamza, you sound upset. Are you sure you’re OK?”

“No. Yes. I mean, no, I’m not upset. Honest. I just… I didn’t realise the time. If I had, I wouldn’t have…” He thought of the couple he’d left in the cottage behind him, their lives forever changed. Forever broken. Their family torn apart.

“Actually, you know what?” Amira said. “I think maybe I do hear Kamila moving about. Do you want me to go see?”

“Eh…” Hamza said, but the rest wouldn’t come. Some blockage in his throat stopped the words from emerging.

“Give me a second,” Amira said, and this time she sounded nothing like her mother. Quite the opposite. “And I’ll put her on.”

* * *

DI Forde put a hand on Sinead’s shoulder, startling her awake. She lunged for her laptop keyboard, stared in confusion at the darkened screen, then looked around the room as if getting her bearings.

It was only then that she spotted Ben smiling down at her, and realised what had happened.

“Sorry, sir. I must’ve nodded off.”

“It’s nearly midnight,” Ben said. “You should get to the hotel. Get some rest.”

Sinead stretched and checked her watch, confirming the time for herself. “God. Yeah.” She yawned, then rubbed her eyes with finger and thumb, forcing them to open wider. “Any word from Hamza?”

“He called a few minutes ago,” Ben confirmed. “He’s been in and spoken to Jazmin’s parents. Suffice to say, they didn’t take it well.”

“No. I can’t imagine they would have,” Sinead said. “How’s Hamza doing? He’s had a hell of a night.”

“He’s… OK, I think. He phoned home and spoke to his wife and the wee one. I think that helped. Or, I don’t know, possibly made it worse. You know what it’s like.”

Sinead nodded. She did. Better, perhaps, than most.

“Did he mention the baby?”

Ben lowered himself onto the edge of a desk. “He did. He reckoned they were shocked. Doesn’t think they knew anything about it. They hadn’t seen her in months.”

“I’m guessing they didn’t know about her choice of career?”

“They thought she was working at the school. Teaching Assistant. Hamza decided not to shatter that illusion quite yet. They’d had quite enough bad news for one day.”