What Matt had told her about Professor Cooper sat heavily on her mind. ‘She was trying to get hold of you, Kelly. We don’t know yet if she was on hands-free, or whether the accident had anything to do with loss of concentration.’

An onerous knot had sat in her stomach since that moment, and she couldn’t shake it. She’d found Miranda Cooper aloof and arrogant, and she couldn’t think why she might be trying to make contact with her, unless she had some information. Matt also mentioned that the driver of the lorry involved had scarpered, scared to death, no doubt, and they had no idea if he was injured.

‘Number plate check?’

‘Done. It was a Ravensword vehicle that had been out for most of the day. The driver was returning it to the yard and we got a name, but when we checked his address, he was asleep at home. He hadn’t been in to work, and his alibi checks out: he and his wife had been up with their daughter for most of the night; she’d kept them awake with a vomiting bug.’

‘Shit,’ Kelly said.

‘Quite.’

‘CCTV?’ she asked.

‘None. And no witnesses. Plenty of people saw the pile-up and the aftermath, but everyone was concentrating on the state of her car, and no one saw the driver leave, or whether he was injured. What are you up to today?’ he added, as if she might be meeting a friend for tea and cake. It was a weird situation. She’d been in Matt’s company for three long days, shoulder to shoulder, living and breathing a joint investigation, and it was surreal being on the phone to him every five minutes now. She knew she should tell Johnny, but she didn’t know when to do it, and how, or even why. It was irrelevant, but not.

‘I’m interviewing Graeme Millar. What did Leo Brown’s aunt say?’

‘She hasn’t seen him in years. We did a cursory search: no antique racing shells or anything worth anywhere near half a million quid. How is it up there in the sticks?’

‘Fuck off.’

She stopped at some traffic lights close to Keswick and glanced sideways. Her heart stopped as she recognised Dave Crawley in the driver’s seat of a Land Rover. He was staring at her, and she froze. Her exes seemed to be crawling out of every crack at the moment. She felt vulnerable and shifted in her seat. The lights changed and she willed the traffic in front of her to move forward. His gaze was still fixed on her in a hateful scowl; she was glad of the protection of the car.