‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘Everything is in the open. Who you are, and what an idiot I’ve been.’

He saw Dina roll her eyes. ‘You aren’t angry with me for obeying orders, are you? What was I supposed to do? Tell her no, we had our own plan?’ Dina shook her head, the expression in her eyes a little harder. ‘You know it doesn’t end well for people who do that.’

‘There’s not a chance in hell those were orders,’ Niall said, flatly. ‘Everything you’ve tried to do from the moment she brought you in … wriggling your way into the middle of it all, to get one up on me … has been a ridiculous game. And, of course, playing me at the same time. Telling me you missed me, that you regretted ever walking out. Chipping away at my chances of happiness. And for what? To feel like you’ve won?’ And then Niall stopped, closing his mouth deliberately. ‘Actually, forget that. I don’t need to know why. I don’t care any more. I’m here to pick up what you have to give me, and then I’m going.’

Dina gave him a long look, and then she shrugged. She put a manicured hand out to the handbag that was hooked over the back of her chair and drew out an envelope.

‘It isn’t as much as you’re hoping,’ Dina said. ‘Certainly not enough to see you out of debt.’

Niall took it with a shrug and slid it into his pocket without opening it. He wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of seeing his disappointment. ‘It doesn’t matter. It’s all done.’

‘Nearly,’ Dina said, as he rose. ‘She has a few loose ends to tie up, she said.’

Niall paused, his feeling of certainty wavering. ‘What does she mean, loose ends?’

Jonah had almost made it out of Southampton by the time Hanson’s call came through.

‘I’m so sorry, chief,’ she said. ‘But it looks like – it looks like Alex Plaskitt never attacked Louise Reakes. It was the nightclub owner, Charlie. He’s Marc Ruskin’s brother, and he was at Rain for Step’s birthday, the night Gianetta Jilani was attacked in January of last year. And he had the knife for safekeeping.’

Jonah found his mind slow to process all this information. ‘Step’s knife?’ he eventually managed to ask.