‘The Family? Hmm…. doesn’t ring any bells.’

‘Okay. Anyhow, as an adult she got pregnant and gave birth to a child, which she then subsequently murdered by smashing its head against a wall. And that’s what brought her in here.’

‘Why did she do it?’

‘In her defence she claimed it was down to post-natal depression. That didn’t manage to get her off but it played a mitigating factor in her sentencing.’

‘What about the father?’

‘No mention of him in the file. I’m guessing she probably accidentally got pregnant by some random bloke and couldn’t handle the responsibility of raising a child by herself.’

‘Well, that’s all fascinating, Bailey. And depressing. But it still doesn’t explain how she’s tied into the murders, does it?’

‘I know she’s connected somehow. I can feel it. Just looking at her picture, I know it.’

‘The trail is dead, as I told you. There’s nothing more I can do to help you. And what’s more, the drugs squad have lost patience with your “new angle”. I think they’re starting to suspect that I’m bullshitting them, but they don’t know why. Either way, I can’t stall them any longer, Bailey, we’re going to have to pull you out.’

‘The next murder is in two days,’ she pleaded.

‘And you’re no closer to finding out who’s going to do it.’

She sighed in frustration. He was right. But she wasn’t going to give up. Not now. Not yet.

‘That “Family” thing is niggling at me,’ she said. ‘Can you look into it? Just do this one last thing for me. Please?’

The other end of the phone was silent.

‘Frank?’ she said.

‘It’s the last roll of the dice, Bailey. But I’ll see what I can do.’

And he hung up.

Chapter 97

The tattoo gun ceased its buzzing. The sudden silence broke Bailey’s trance of concentration.

‘Have you been listening to anything I’ve been saying?’ said Poppy from behind her.

Poppy had been speaking for the past few minutes, but Bailey hadn’t been paying attention to any of it, so preoccupied was she by thoughts of how she could progress her investigation.

‘Sorry? What were you saying? I was totally zoned out.’

‘I was saying that I’m really excited about opening our tattoo shop. About going into business together. About our future.’

‘I’m excited as well,’ said Bailey. ‘It’ll be great. I know that whatever you do, it’ll work out just fine.’

‘All I ever needed was someone to believe in me. Someone like you.’

Poppy switched the tattoo gun back on again and resumed her work on Bailey’s lower back.

A short while later, she switched off the gun and placed it on the chair by the bed. She dabbed at her handiwork with a tissue.

‘There. It’s almost done. One more session and it’ll be finished.’

She climbed off Bailey and stood up.

Bailey got off the bunk and pulled her vest on. She turned to face Poppy. Poppy’s face went serious as she realised Bailey had something important to say.