Jane hung up the phone and went back to the bathroom. After a long, luxurious bath, she lay down on her bed, replaying the brief phone call with Dabs in her head. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it but it felt like Dabs was hiding something. She sighed. Maybe Elliott was married. Typical! She put Elliott out of her mind and made herself concentrate on what she needed to do the following morning. She’d told Julia Summers she wouldn’t try to contact Annalise, but that was exactly what she was going to do.

*

Jane had a thudding headache the following morning. She didn’t bother making herself breakfast but drove in early to the station to get a coffee and scrambled eggs in the canteen. She took two aspirin and, even though she didn’t feel hungry, forced herself to eat the eggs. Her headache persisted. At 6:50 a.m., Spencer joined her, carrying a full English breakfast and a mug of tea.

‘Sorry about last night,’ he said, banging down his tray. ‘I’ve been working nights on and off and it was just going to be a nice evening at home with her. You didn’t spoil it, though; the takeaway was terrible. Soggy chips and an overcooked kebab.’

Jane sipped her coffee. ‘Did you finish your report?’

He nodded, his mouth full. ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah . . . ’

‘Did you come across the name Annalise?’

‘No, sorry. What’s so important about this Annalise?’

Jane pushed her half-eaten scrambled eggs away. ‘It’s just a possibility, but she’d been hired for one of the premieres and something bad happened. Julia didn’t actually mean to give me her name and was reluctant to tell me about it. I just have this feeling that we might be on to something.’

Spencer shrugged. They had no time to discuss it further as the briefing was about to begin. They left the canteen and walked down to the incident room. This time there were even fewer officers than for the last briefing. DI Miller was already sitting with his pristine notebook and sharpened pencil at the ready as Tyler, looking haggard, sipped from a large mug of black coffee. Tyler kicked off the briefing by explaining how crossed wires had led to Jane going to Justine Harris’s house on her own. He glanced towards Jane and nodded his head.