‘It’s about a clinical trial you were involved in a few years ago. Run by DH Biotech?’

Nothing changes, her expression is exactly the same, her posture is exactly the same, everything is exactly the same. And yet something’s different, like a light behind the eyes is suddenly shut off. It’s a reaction I like to see.

‘Who are you?’

‘Police. Inspector Rykel. And we really do need to chat.’

‘I don’t remember anything.’ She turns her back to me, does a final check on the bike and starts to wheel it away.

‘I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist. I’ll give you a lift to the school?’

‘Do I have a choice?’

‘You always have a choice. But all I’m asking is for a quick chat. Please, it could really help.’

‘Okay,’ she says after a long look at me. ‘I’ve been on my feet for hours; I could do with a lift. But that’s all.’

I can work with that as a start. The Stang had been parked far enough away from my houseboat that it hadn’t sustained any damage from the fire, and I’d driven it out here. It’s up on the sixth floor. Stephanie folds up the bike again and we hit the stairs. I offer to carry it for her but she refuses. It just fits in the back and soon we’re corkscrewing down through the levels and out onto the road.

‘So you remember the trial I’m talking about?’

She nods, but doesn’t exactly gush information at me. I’m about to prompt her again when she speaks.

‘Yeah, I remember.’

‘So what happened?’

A few more streets go by. We stop at a light.

‘It … it didn’t go well. There were twelve men signed up for the trial. I was just finishing my training and was shadowing the resident matron. She was the one who was administering the drug. We went from bed to bed and injected the numbered vial that corresponded with each volunteer; the point was that we didn’t know which was placebo and which was real. Once that was done we had to draw blood from each one every hour, and monitor vitals, things like heart rate, body temperature. We also had to administer some coordination tests, so by the time you’d finished with the twelfth you had to start back with the first one again. Anyway, it was during the second hour when the first volunteer started to complain of a headache. It got worse and worse, and then another volunteer also said they had a headache. By then the first one was screaming in pain and … Well, you can imagine how everyone started to freak out. It was chaos. That was when the first one started to bleed out of their nose.’