He saw a few heads nodding and turned to leave the room, stopping for a quick chat with Lynsey.

‘We need to prioritise, Lynsey. As we already know, the tox results proved conclusively that the drugs didn’t kill Penny – or Jasmine, as we must now call her. But when we have more of a picture of her life we might be able to make sense of her medications, prescribed or otherwise. That’s when your work will come into its own, so make sure you’ve got it all written up, and then we can see how it fits into Jasmine’s story.’

Thank goodness they had a name at last. The investigation should begin to move forward at a pace now, and the team would be re-energised.

Tom couldn’t help thinking about the girls’ parents, though. They might have lost contact with Jasmine, but it would still break their hearts. To lose both daughters at such a young age would be devastating.

CHAPTER 28

28

The meeting with the building society didn’t go well. I had to admit to the girl sent to talk to me – who looked about twelve – that I had been fired from my job. I asked for a few months to get back on my feet and she said they might be able to allow me some leeway, but I found myself getting angry with her when she tried to explain the limitations imposed by their procedures.

‘You don’t understand,’ I said, leaning across the desk towards her. ‘I was sacked for something I didn’t bloody well do! None of this is my fault. All I’m asking for is time to sort myself out, and no, of course I can’t commit to resolving the situation in the next four weeks. My boyfriend won’t move out, so I can’t even rent rooms out to cover the cost.’

I could hear my voice rising, and the girl’s head shot backwards as if she was scared I was going to punch her. I sat back, ashamed of myself for a moment, but there was a huge ball of anger building inside me, spinning, growing, wanting to burst out and spill over everything and everybody in its way. No one wanted to listen to me; they all thought I was every bit as bad as my idiot ex-boss said I was. In the end I jumped up and stormed out of the door, shouting that they could stuff their mortgage.

Now, as I sit outside my house in Thea’s car, I take a deep breath to try to calm myself.

‘I know you’re trying to be cool,’ Thea says, ‘but it might not do Ian any harm to see how angry you are. If you’re always pleasant and balanced about things, he’s never going to take you seriously, is he?’