Suddenly Agatha stood up, so quickly Eliza flinched. Agatha opened the door and shouted, so Eliza could hear, ‘Could we have the heaters turned up in here?’

She returned and sat back down. She gave a sad smile. ‘Well, I can’t say I agree . . .’ She took some papers out of the folder and shuffled them. ‘But I suppose I understand.’

‘I don’t know what you mean,’ said Eliza.

‘I had the most interesting chat with Madison Mason earlier today. She remembers a lot that she initially didn’t think was important.’

The commander pretended to read through a typed-up ‘report’, which she and Con had fabricated just half an hour earlier. It was full of things that Madison definitely did not say. It wasn’t illegal, as it wouldn’t leave the room: it was just a prop. That’s what Con kept telling himself, anyway.

‘Madison said Cierra told her that there was a man coming – a man, mind you – who wanted to experiment with twins.’ She glanced up at Eliza. ‘She said that she heard a thump, like a heavy body hitting the ground. And that, now that she thought about it, the hedges outside her sister’s window were much flatter than before. As though someone had jumped out the window. In fact, that’s likely the bump that she heard.’

The commander showed Eliza a photograph from the Masons’ house, which Con had raced to take just fifteen minutes earlier, with a red circle drawn around the hedge underneath Cierra’s window. There did seem to be some damage to the conifer.

‘The smell of marijuana and the empty bottles in the room . . . Tell me, what is Tom’s alcohol tolerance like? Of course, when you add marijuana, you’re much more likely to feel . . . unwell. No doubt you saw it firsthand when you rushed to the Masons’ house to rescue him. I’ve also heard you should never drink while on steroids.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ said Eliza.

‘What I am surprised by is that he called you. Did his wife know about it? I’m guessing it was a fetish of his long before he even met you?’ Agatha grimaced. ‘I’m not begrudging the man his sexual tastes, but when it comes to underage girls, especially his students . . . wait, no . . . Cierra called you, didn’t she? Not Tom. She called you, the only person she thought might be able to help in that situation. Did she call from her own phone or from Tom’s?’

‘I want my lawyer.’

‘Certainly. You don’t have to say anything more until she arrives.’

That was Con’s cue.

He tapped at his phone under the desk. Ten seconds later, the timer’s alarm began to ring, sounding like his ringtone.

He made a show of pulling out his phone and looking at it, puzzled, then pretended to answer.