She clenches her teeth, pushing away the misery threatening to turn into tears in the middle of the office. She looks at the photo, searching for the honesty behind his blue eyes. And then she frowns. She looks closer, squinting at the image, then turns and pulls it up on her computer screen, zooming it in to a point on the base of his neck, just next to the collar of his shirt.

She’s aware of Butler coming back into the office, sitting beside her at his computer.

‘Sarge?’ she says, without looking away from the screen.

‘Hmm?’ He scoots up next to her on his chair.

‘Here.’ She sits back, chancing a look at him. He seems calmer now, the anger from earlier gone from his face. She points to the spot on the screen. ‘See that mole?’

‘Yeah? And?’

‘He’d had that removed,’ she blurts out. She remembers it clearly. Six months ago. The worry about possible skin cancer, the relief when the results were negative.

‘How do you know that?’ Butler asks. She feels him looking at her, her face growing hot.

‘I…’ Shit. Think, Freya, think. ‘I noticed on the crime scene photos.’

He moves away to his own computer, clicking. She knows what he’s doing but she doesn’t dare turn around. She hasn’t seen the shots from the hotel. She doesn’t want to remember Jon like that, but there’s no avoiding it now.

‘Bloody hell, you’re right,’ Butler says from behind her.

She turns. But luckily he’s done the same as her, blown up the photo so only pale skin is visible. And sure enough, there’s a narrow silver line, where the mole should have been.

Slowly, Butler shakes his head, then pulls the photo of Jonathan and Kal down from the board. ‘So this…’ he starts.

‘It’s an old photo,’ she finishes for him. ‘That tweet is a lie.’

‘And if that’s a lie,’ Butler continues, ‘what else is?’

21

Robin mentally thanks Tripadvisor for the restaurant recommendation, as he and Steph walk across to their table. So far, he hasn’t screwed anything up. He ironed a shirt, put on a suit, nice shoes, tried a tie and discarded it. He was on time to pick Steph up; he even remembered to open the car door for her, a gesture she raised an eyebrow at.

Steph had been busy over the weekend, so they’d agreed on Monday night. And as the time for their date approached, Robin found himself getting nervous. This felt right, a tiny step towards letting someone else into his life. And although he and Steph had done things in the past, if they were going to turn it into something more, he knew he needed to invest some proper energy.