‘This is Con. What have you got, Tran?’ He raised his eyebrows and pitched his voice higher. ‘She’s alive?’

Eliza leaned forward over the table. Con mirrored the action, leaning towards Eliza. He met her eyes, looked away.

‘Yes. Where? Any sign of Jasmine?’ He let his shoulders slump. ‘But Cierra? She’ll be able to talk?’

Eliza released a sob. ‘Thank God!’

‘I’ll be there soon, I just need to finish with Eliza . . . Yes, I agree. We’ll ask the girl to corroborate.’

Eliza had one hand resting on the table and again he mirrored her pose, not letting his gaze linger too long. Mirrored body language to build subconscious rapport. Drawing her into his web.

‘I’ll call you back soon.’ He pretended to hang up the phone, then blew out a long sigh through his teeth. ‘She’s alive,’ he whispered, almost to himself.

‘Perhaps next time you can take the call outside the interview room?’ said Agatha, words clipped.

‘Where is she? Where did they find her? What about Jasmine?’ said Eliza. ‘Con, please!’

Con opened his mouth to reply, but Agatha spoke over him, her voice hard. ‘No. You’ve already said enough, Badenhorst. She’s still a person of interest.’

Eliza fell back, anguish playing on her face.

Con felt a stab of guilt.

‘You know what I think, Miss Ellis? You’re taking the fall for Tom,’ said Agatha. ‘I think you wanted to do the best thing for your sister, her daughter. And I understand that. But I wonder what it is about Tom that makes you want to protect a man like him.’

For the first time, Con saw anger in her face.

‘If Cierra is alive,’ Agatha said wryly, glancing at Con and his phone, ‘then we’ll be finding out the truth soon anyway. But in the meantime, we’re wasting time and resources investigating you. We should be investigating Tom.’

‘You know Tom can’t have been involved,’ said Eliza. ‘He was far ahead of our group.’

‘Then why lie about his relationship with Cierra?’

Eliza was silent.

‘He’ll go to jail. Maybe you will, too, if we don’t find Jasmine. Once Cierra confirms you were lying, it won’t take long until people start wondering why you haven’t been more closely examined as a suspect.’

‘But Wren will be the one to suffer . . .’

‘And how much has Cierra suffered? And it could have been Madison, too, that night. It was only a matter of time before Tom had them both, just like he wanted. You realise this is sexual abuse, right? Does Monica know?’

‘Yes,’ Eliza finally forced out. ‘She stayed with Wren when I went to get Tom.’ Tears rolled down her cheeks. ‘Cierra is safe . . . thank God . . .’ She began to cry.

Con felt the prickling of guilt all over his body.