In his office, Priest plugged the phone in and left while it charged. He found the Piccolo Cafe across the road open but devoid of other customers. He bought a large plastic cup of tea, bid the proprietor a hearty good morning and returned to the office.

The phone had turned itself on – the battery was at eight per cent. Priest spent the next two hours engrossed in its contents.

*

Georgie’s alarm had buzzed at half past six exactly. She had stretched out in an uncoordinated attempt to stop it and ended up knocking the unit on to the floor.

Georgie had a rule – it didn’t matter what time she went to bed, she always got up at six thirty on the dot. Successful people don’t need much sleep, her late father used to say. Thomas Edison only slept for three hours a night. When Georgie was in her early teens, she had developed a routine around this doctrine and, although she now realised that she was not of the Edison-sleepless ilk, the habit had stuck.

She had been showered and dressed with her hair dried in half an hour. Li would be up at some point mid-morning and would be ready to leave the house by lunchtime. Clients never slept over. Li had limits to her services.

Now, she felt groggy, but the promise of a ten-minute power nap after breakfast kept her going. It wouldn’t work of course – only superhumans could power nap – but Georgie liked the idea.

It had been a strange evening: first the trauma of going into the gym alone, which had rattled her nerves, then the disappointment at having to wait in the car while Charlie spoke to Mims. At least Charlie had the phone back. Now maybe they could find some answers.

She spent the next half an hour catching up on paperwork. Then, she packed the pockets of her Dora the Explorer body warmer with a pair of gloves, her purse, phone, reading glasses, tissues and a selection of hair bobbles. For some reason, Elinor Fox popped into her mind. Elinor with her flirtatious smile and playful lips, and her curvy body and small breasts, much like hers; no different in fact, yet somehow she was so much more womanly than Georgie was. Why can’t Charlie see through her like I can? Fox’s reaction to finding Simeon’s body in the back of her car had raised an alarm bell with Georgie. Something about the way she’d exploded into overdone distress – shouldn’t there have been a pre-stage of shock, numbness, or something?

But then again Georgie had never experienced anyone finding a dead body in their car before. Who knows how you might react?