“I doubt she’ll be using them much for the next week or so.” Bell led them inside. Jessica Traynor—minus neck brace—was stretched out on the sofa in the living room, one ankle still strapped, with the TV remote, an iPad and her mobile phone close to her. Books lay open on the room’s only table, next to a laptop whose screen seemed to show the opening paragraph of an essay. Bell sat down at the table while Rebus and Clarke stayed standing.

“If you could just give us a minute to ourselves,” Rebus said to Bell.

“I want her to stay,” Jessica Traynor protested.

“Some things are best said in private,” Rebus warned her, but Traynor shook her head.

“Are you on the mend?” Clarke asked.

“Supposedly. I’m taking co-codamol for the pain. Makes things nicely spacey.”

“Is that a prescription?” Rebus inquired. “Or are you getting it from your boyfriend?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“We hear he sells drugs, Jessica,” Clarke explained.

“Rubbish!” Traynor barked. “Who told you that?”

“You’re saying it isn’t true?”

“Of course it’s not true,” Alice Bell interrupted. “And we’d know, wouldn’t we?”

“You probably would, yes,” Clarke agreed. “But I can appreciate you might not want to admit it.”

“It may come as news to you,” Jessica Traynor said, “but Forbes’s father has just died. You’re really going to drag him to a police station and accuse him of dealing drugs? All because somebody spun you a bullshit story?”

Rebus took a step towards the sofa. “When you called me last night, Jessica, you were on the verge of telling me something. ‘They’ll kill me,’ you said. Sounds as if there are people out there you’re afraid of, people your father can’t protect you from.”

“She’s already told you,” Alice Bell said, rising from the table. “She’s taking painkillers. Half the time she doesn’t know what she’s saying.” She had settled herself on the arm of the sofa, next to Jessica Traynor’s head. Reaching down, she stroked her flatmate’s hair. “She shouldn’t even be talking to you now.”

Rebus’s stare was directed at Traynor. “Who are they, Jessica?” he asked. “Who is it that’ll punish you if you talk to us? Were they there the night of the crash? Are they after Forbes too?”

“Time for another of these, I think.” She produced a bottle of pills which had been tucked beneath her on the sofa. “Fetch me some water, will you?”

Alice Bell got up and headed for the kitchen. Once she’d left the room, Rebus approached Traynor, crouching down in front of her, his face inches from hers.

“We can help, Jessica. Maybe we’re the only ones who can. You just need to trust us.”

The student’s eyes were glassy, but she was listening.