His lip curled. ‘I don’t have a car, Paige. I always knew you were delusional but this is taking it a bit far, even for you.’

It took a moment for this to sink in. Was he telling the truth, or was he just trying to throw me off the scent? If it hadn’t been him following me, who was it?

‘You stupid cow,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘Are you trying to ruin my life again?’

I’d had enough. ‘You really need to get help, you know that? You’ve brought all of this on yourself, with your ridiculous denial of what you did to me. You stole all my money and locked me in my flat for four days, Mike! And you wonder why I wouldn’t want anything to do with you? I haven’t said a word to Jess, she probably realised what a shit you are all on her own.’

The stunned look on Mike’s face was still there when the door next to us was flung open. DI Forest stood there, her face thunderous as she looked between us both. I braced myself for the tirade, but she settled on Mike.

‘Mr Lowther, you are disturbing our interview process. I would kindly ask you to control yourself.’

He hesitated, but she stared at him until he walked away.

‘Thank you,’ I said to her, and she nodded. Still surprised that she only railed at Mike for his behaviour, despite the fact I had been shouting too, I sat down to wait for the next time I’d be needed.

It took another hour before Singh came to find me, and I could see his exhaustion hanging beneath his eyes.

‘It’s as if a ghost came in and killed the man,’ he said, shaking his head in disbelief. ‘Nobody saw anything untoward, nobody thought Saul was behaving differently, and he didn’t tell anyone what he’d found. We’re getting absolutely nowhere. One of these people killed him, but I’m going to have to let them all go.’

He kicked the wall in frustration, and on impulse I gave him a hug. I felt the tension in his shoulders relax slightly as he returned it, then he pulled away and gave me an embarrassed smile.

‘It’s not your fault,’ I said. ‘Something will turn up. The tech people have his computer, don’t they?’

Singh nodded.

‘They’ll find whatever it was, and you’ll have them in the next day or two.’

‘By which time they could be halfway across Europe.’

‘Or they might still be here, hoping you haven’t found anything.’

He nodded, but I knew he wasn’t really listening to me. In his head, he was probably listing everything he could have done better.

‘You should go home,’ he told me.

I nodded. ‘Okay. But ring me if you need me back, okay?’