“We had a good long talk, all four of us,” Traynor was saying, almost for his own benefit rather than Rebus’s. “Cleared the air. Alice really liked Forbes, but he belonged to Jessica. That was why she started seeing his father—it was the next closest thing. They’re just kids, yeah? They don’t always know what they’re doing. Forbes said he was sorry for leaving Jessica in the lurch the night of the crash. He was planning to run to his folks’ place and fetch help. There was nobody home, and by the time he got back to the Golf, Jessica was already on her way to A and E…”

“John?” It was Fox’s voice. He was standing in the doorway. “Bathroom,” he said.

Rebus walked back along the hall until he found it. Rory Bell lay in the empty white porcelain tub. Fully dressed, his neck twisted at an unusual angle, eyes open and glassy. Rebus felt in the man’s pockets and pulled out a set of car keys. One trouser leg had ridden up, showing a pale, hairless calf. He tugged the material back down again, as if to add the smallest touch of dignity to the scene.

A scene that would be photographed, swabbed for prints and gone over by a team of SOCOs. The SOCOs Rebus now needed to call. Heart pounding, he walked slowly towards and into the living room. Owen Traynor hadn’t moved.

“Nobody scares my daughter like that, Rebus. Not if they want to live.”

“He didn’t bring anyone with him?”

Traynor shook his head. “Had to be the two of us—I was adamant about that.”

“This was last night? Late last night? And you’ve been sitting here ever since?”

“What else was I going to do?”

Rebus turned towards Fox. “Get a couple of the uniforms from downstairs, will you?”

Fox nodded and turned to leave. Rebus walked over to the window again.

“He can’t hurt her now,” Owen Traynor was intoning. “I’ve made sure everybody’s safe.”

“When my colleague comes back,” Rebus explained quietly, “you’ll be cautioned. Do you want to call Jessica first and tell her what’s happening?”

“It was easy, you know. Almost too easy—there was no strength in the man. And it almost wasn’t me at all; I was watching it happen from somewhere else…”

“You should call your daughter.”

“I already did—maybe an hour ago. She said she’d come and help me. She said we could hide the body, or get rid of it somehow. But that wouldn’t do any good, would it?”

“It wouldn’t,” Rebus said. “Not in the long run.”

“I thought about doing myself in, you know.”

“Jessica will be happy you changed your mind.”

“She’s the one thing that stopped me.” Traynor had joined Rebus at the window. “That his car?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“What’s so interesting about it?”