‘I’m not … going to say any more,’ Niall said, with difficulty. ‘Just talk to Dina again. Please. And tell her …’ Niall paused, almost as though the act of speaking had become difficult. ‘Tell her you know we’ve been meeting up for months. Maybe it’ll help jog her memory.’

‘We have two items we’d like you to look at,’ Hanson said, glad of the presence of the female PCSO. Louise Reakes looked a fraction closer to falling apart every time she met her. Her nervous movements and darting gaze were unsettling.

Hanson handed the first evidence bag over to Louise. It contained the woman’s glove they’d found on Asylum Green. There was condensation on the inside of the bag, presumably because the glove was still damp. But the shape was relatively easy to make out even so.

Louise took it, and examined it for a moment, before shaking her head. ‘It’s not mine, and I don’t recognise it.’

‘OK,’ Hanson said, and then passed the earring over. This time, Louise’s reaction was immediate. She nodded and ran her thumb over the length of the earring through the plastic.

‘It’s mine,’ she said. ‘I was wearing them on Friday. Where did you find it?’

‘On the route we think you took home,’ Hanson replied.

Louise nodded, and put a hand up towards her left ear, her gaze distant. Something changed in her expression. And then she said in a dull voice, ‘It got caught on his sleeve. When he pinned me down.’

Jonah left the interview room with the conviction that there was a lot more going on between Niall Reakes and Dina Weyman than he yet understood.

‘Can you run a check for Dina’s licence plate, too?’ he asked O’Malley. ‘If Niall Reakes didn’t drive himself to Southampton, maybe she gave him a lift.’

He took himself back to his office, wondering how this was connected to Alex Plaskitt’s death, if at all, and why Niall had looked so sick when they’d mentioned his journey to Zurich. And, on top of that, why he was so set on them talking to Dina again.

Lightman tapped on his door, and Jonah nodded him in.

‘Ben. How’s it going?’ he asked.

‘Interestingly,’ Lightman told him. ‘Alex Plaskitt did, in fact, have a romantic liaison in the club, but not with Louise Reakes. It was with April Dumont.’

Jonah gave a slight, shocked laugh. ‘You’re kidding.’

‘His description didn’t leave much doubt,’ Lightman said.

‘OK,’ Jonah said, growing more serious. ‘I want her here, as soon as possible.’

‘She’s unfortunately now in Leeds until late tonight so I told her nine o’clock tomorrow. Sorry, chief.’

‘Nine tomorrow will have to do. Did Step have anything to say about Niall Reakes?’

‘No, nothing,’ Lightman said. ‘He didn’t recognise photographs of either Niall or Louise when I sent them over, either.’