“Only that if Sabini took the hump, Colthorne might have done himself out of an ally,” Joel suggested. “Temporarily, at least. So perhaps he decided to bluff his way through, and hope Mr. Fowler wouldn’t care to fight a whole barrage of accusations.” Especially if Paul Napier-Fox had blabbed about Aaron’s school indiscretion. Joel didn’t propose to bring that up. “You wouldn’t do that if you felt certain you could frame someone up properly. But you might do it if you were on shaky ground and didn’t want to give them leisure to counter-attack.”

She nodded slowly. “So we should do that, then. DS Fowler still thinks the answer is in Marks’s notebooks.”

“Or papers. Colthorne mentioned papers. And I told Sabini that DS Fowler had showed me letters from an ongoing investigation—”

“Whereupon Colthorne launched the attack. Hmm.” She drummed her fingers on her knee. “We searched Marks’s office and rooms very thoroughly. I can’t think he had another place; he was barely able to afford the life we saw. If he stashed them somewhere, we haven’t found it.”

“If he was afraid enough to move his files, he surely would have wanted to put them somewhere they’d be found if anything happened to him,” Joel said. “Or, perhaps, with someone who’d act if he turned up dead?”

“Nobody has contacted us to my knowledge. He wasn’t married, no family.” She frowned. “I might visit his landlady again. She clearly cared about him; I wonder if he’d have confided in her. She didn’t want to talk to me, though, and was very distrustful of the police. I wonder—”

“If Marks told her not to trust the fuzz,” Joel said breathlessly. “With Colthorne involved, wouldn’t that be something Marks would say?”

“Yes, it might. Which creates a problem for me, of course.”

Their eyes met. Joel swallowed. “Suppose—not that I want to tread on your toes or insert myself into official business or any such—but suppose I talk to her?”

Challice considered that for what felt like a very long time, then said, “Yes. Suppose you do.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

AARON STARED AT THE walls of his flat. He couldn’t seem to make himself do anything else, because his life had fallen apart around him and all he could do was brace himself for the coming blows.

The meeting with DDI Colthorne had been dreadful. It was truly terrifying to have a man lie to your face when you both knew he was lying, but he didn’t care that you knew because you had no power to object. Colthorne had listed Aaron’s supposed acts of misconduct with a little, cruel smile, enjoying every second of his discomfort. I can crush you, was the message, and I will.

As indeed he could, if Joel had caved.