‘But you don’t know who any of them are?’

The gentleman shook his head. ‘I’m afraid I’m not in the habit of strolling out at that hour of the night.’

Jonah nodded, slowly. He might not be, but there were traffic cameras not far away. Louise Reakes had mentioned a loud engine, too, which made this account more interesting. ‘Just let us know if you think of anything else,’ he said. And then he made his way back to number eleven.

Shaw was done with his observations and was in the midst of discussing the removal of the body to the city mortuary. Lightman and O’Malley were hovering near the gate. Presumably they’d finished quizzing the nearest neighbours.

‘Am I cleared to look for ID?’ Jonah asked.

‘Yes,’ Shaw agreed. ‘Be my guest.’

McCullough pulled a pair of purple latex gloves from her pocket and handed them to Jonah. He slid them on and was immediately hit by their smell. A sex-and-death smell, McCullough had once said. Jonah had laughed, and then felt a little nauseated the next time he’d torn into a foil packet and recognised the scent.

O’Malley crouched next to Jonah as he manoeuvred a wallet out of the victim’s back pocket. He opened it carefully and slid out a credit card, touching it as little as possible.

‘A. Plaskitt,’ he said, and then continued to look through the cards until he found a gym membership. ‘Alex. Alex Plaskitt.’

McCullough held out a plastic bag for Jonah to slide the wallet into, and he shifted so he could reach into the man’s right-hand pocket, which looked like it might have a phone in it. It was much harder to pull out. The victim’s legs were drawn up so that the phone was wedged against his hip. But by pushing it up from the outside of the pocket, Jonah managed to lever it out.

An iPhone. Fairly new, he thought, and cased in a plastic protector with an elaborate dragon pattern over it that almost matched his T-shirt.

Jonah pushed the home button and it lit up, showing a series of messages from someone saved as ‘Sex Kitten Issa’.

Alex’s girlfriend, probably, Jonah thought, as he scanned them.

The last one was from half an hour ago and read:

Where the fuck are you?

2

Louise

Niall, there’s so much I need to tell you. A whole messy story that surrounds and encompasses the morning I woke up next to a stranger and panicked like I’ve never panicked before.

I know it might well be too late for any of this. I’m sitting here without you, and I’m not even sure I want you to come back. But after so many stupid secrets, I think it’s time to lay everything bare.