‘It can’t have been. I’ve got it here with me now. Look.’ He pulled it from his utility belt and flicked it open with a snick. The little sound was very loud in the silence and suddenly, he was holding an open blade. Looking from it to her and back again. Her heart lurched. She was alone with him and he was holding a knife.

And then, finally, common sense kicked in. If he was holding his knife here . . . now . . . then whose knife had she dropped down the incineration chute? ‘Where did you get that knife?’

She could see he was beginning to be angry. ‘It was issued to me on my first day. Remember? Same as you. There’s my number. See?’

He held it up. She could see his number stamped on the handle. 2144.

She put her hand over her mouth. ‘Oh.’

‘Is that all you’ve got to say? “Oh”?’

‘I got your number wrong.’

‘What?’

‘I thought you were 2044.’

‘So you thought the knife was mine?’

‘I thought you’d dropped it when . . .’

‘. . . and that was why you were caught chucking it down the chute, and you never said anything because you thought I’d done it. You let them think – Jane, you idiot.’

She gaped at him, speechless with anger – at both of them, because she was obviously as stupid as he was. And full of indignation at his ingratitude. And confusion – because if he hadn’t and she hadn’t – then who had killed Smith? Relief was there as well, but unable to elbow its way past all the other churning emotions. Relief would get its chance later.

Luke hadn’t finished being angry. ‘I thought it was your knife you’d chucked down the chute.’

She shook her head. ‘Who is 2044?’

‘Dunno. And you destroyed it . . .’ He tailed off. ‘I can’t believe this, Jane. If you’d left well alone – if you’d raised the alarm – if you hadn’t touched the knife . . . She was still alive and well when I left her. There was no blood on me. My fingerprints wouldn’t have been on that knife. Nor yours. There was nothing to implicate either of us and – ouch, that hurt. Why are you attacking your rescuer? Again.’

She was so furious the words would barely come.

‘I covered for you. I tried to conceal a crime for you and you called me an idiot.’

‘Well, you are.’ He paused. ‘That’s a very good point. Why did you cover for me?’

‘I genuinely have no idea. I don’t know what I was thinking. I tell you now, the next time I find a body with your knife alongside it, I shall shout, “Here it is. Luke Parrish did it,” and throw a huge party on the day they execute you.’

‘You know three people in the entire world, Lockland. How is that a huge party?’