‘And where did you take it?’

‘I took all the waste back to the depot at first. Then when I saw that bin liner and looked in it, I freaked about what was in there. So I took the bin liner to the woods. I didn’t do anything to her.’

‘Who did you deal with at the abattoir? Who arranged for you to pick up the Category 2 waste?’

Mick rubbed his nose.

‘This is extremely serious,’ Craig said.

‘Some bloke arranged it over the phone a couple of weeks ago. The one who’s in charge of the abattoir.’

‘He must have given you a name.’

Mick sniffed. ‘Gary Finchley.’

Jai marched into my room, in full-on mission mode. ‘The tech people have found evidence that Gary Finchley was at the abattoir on Sunday night. We confronted his wife with it and she started crying and admitted he went out.’

‘He was at the abattoir the night Violet disappeared?’

‘Yes. He logged on to the computer. We think Gary was Violet’s biological father, don’t we? So she might have talked to him about the rape.’

I nodded. ‘And they could have got into an argument. Bring him in. Have we found the bin liner? The one that Mick dumped? That should give us the forensic evidence we need, and then if it’s him, we’ll have the bugger.’

Jai shook his head. ‘Not yet. But we’ve only just started looking. Do you know how big those woods are?’

‘But he told us where he dumped it!’

‘It’s been moved. Or he got it wrong. Or he lied.’ Jai walked over, perched on my windowsill, and jiggled his knee up and down.

‘Sit still, Jai,’ I said. ‘I can’t handle your jittering today.’

‘Sorry. Are you okay? It sounded horrible this morning.’

‘I am. Did Suki tell you she was there? She pretty much rescued me. She’s brave.’

‘What the hell …?’

‘She appeared when they had a knife at my throat.’

‘What? Why?’

‘She wanted to talk to me. She wants me to tell you she does like your kids.’

‘Oh, for God’s sake. You’re going to be even more on her side now, aren’t you?’

I clenched my fists, feeling my fingernails press into my palms. Maybe if I stopped being so damn reasonable and turned into one of those cliched, psycho-bitch, ice-queen bosses then this would stop happening to me. ‘I’m on nobody’s side, Jai. I just want everyone to be happy. Suki’s nice. She’s very brave. And she says she likes your kids. End of.’

‘Okay,’ Jai said. ‘I’m sorry she’s been hassling you.’

‘She didn’t so much hassle me as rescue me, Jai.’

He smiled. ‘Fair enough. I’ll give her that. She has guts.’