‘It’s a busy hotel, people coming and going all the time. It wouldn’t be that hard.’

‘And how long has this guest been staying here?’

‘She checked in yesterday.’

Patrick and Carmella stepped aside. ‘What shall we do? We should wait for back-up, right?’ Carmella said.

‘We should – but we can’t.’

‘You mean you don’t want to.’

‘It’s not a case of want, Carmella.’

Before she could respond, he heard banging coming from within the room opposite the honeymoon suite and someone shouting, ‘Let me out!’

Patrick raised an eyebrow and Elaine looked at him sheepishly. ‘A woman tried to get up to the roof just before you got here. We put her in there for her own safety. She was going crazy.’

‘Open the door.’

The security guard obliged and Patrick found himself face to face with Helen Philips.

She rushed out of the room. ‘Detective Lennon. Where is she? It’s Sean’s ex-wife, she’s not really dead, she pretended to be my friend, she . . .’

‘I know,’ he said gently, though he hadn’t known she had pretended to be Helen’s friend. Oh god, he thought. She doesn’t know about Sean. But this was not the time to tell her.

‘We need you to stay here, Helen,’ he said. ‘We’re going up. I need to check that Frankie is OK, try to talk . . .’

‘What? Frankie? She’s here?’ Stunned comprehension hit Helen like a slap. ‘Oh. Oh . . .’

She tried to dash past him, towards the exit, but Carmella caught her.

‘Let me go!’ Helen was crying now. ‘I need to see her. Frankie! Frankie!’

Patrick grabbed her upper arms and spoke in a low voice. ‘Helen, please, you need to stay calm. I need to you to remain here. More police are on their way. We will get Frankie back for you. I promise.’

She looked up at him, her eyes spilling over with tears. She was smiling and crying, overwhelmed at the news that her daughter was still alive, but still afraid. ‘Don’t let her hurt my baby. Please. Oh god, I’ve missed her so much . . .’

Patrick gently guided Helen into the arms of Elaine the assistant manager, who led her back into the room where she’d been locked up.

He walked towards the stairs. So many things had gone wrong on this case. There had been so many mistakes. He knew well that this could be another. But there was no way he could stand by and wait for back-up while Penny was on that roof with Frankie.