“And when did you last see her?” Julian threw in. He was still standing, because it was that or sit on the floor, which he knew cast him as bad cop.

“I haven’t. Not since then.” Pryor made a good job of meeting his eyes.

“And she’s not been in touch since she disappeared.”

“No.” Plenty of visual cues to show how tense she was, but he was sure she’d been expecting this since the pair of them appeared at her door.

Confident she was lying, Julian had an elaborate skein of leading questions in the back of his mind. But as he opened his mouth to show how clever he was, his memory finally kicked and he said, “I saw you in Camden three nights ago. Why were you there?”

Pryor’s expression was gratifyingly rabbit-in-headlights, and Lawrence kept any surprise to a sidelong glance at him.

“Miss Pryor,” she said. “We’ve reason to believe your friend has surfaced and is involved in something extremely dangerous, both to her and others. People have already been hurt. If there’s anything you can tell us, we need to know it, for your friend’s good as much as anyone’s.”

Lisa Pryor shuddered, still staring at Julian. “That was you. With the ambulance.”

“People died there,” he said bluntly. She’d been talking to Khan, and that meant he needed someone to quiz the good doctor again. “We can’t overstate how serious this is, Miss Pryor.” He was overplaying the act a little, as he tended to do if he wasn’t careful.

“Please, Miss Pryor, has Elsinore been in touch, in any way?” Lawrence pressed more gently. “Help us to help her.”

He saw the moment when her sheer stubbornness cracked open. There was only misery behind the shell. “I don’t know,” Pryor said. “I really don’t know.”

“Explain,” Julian barked, and then, “Please,” reining himself in.

“I got a call from Mal. That’s what she preferred. Prefers. Mal. She said to meet. That’s why I was there. I waited for her. Even though the call was…wasn’t on my log, on my phone. No number, no record at all. And I went, and I waited. And she didn’t turn up. And then there was…you, and all that, whatever it was, and that poor woman whose house had been broken into.”

Julian nodded. Pryor sounded sincere enough, to his best guess. She was still tense, though, gripping her knees. Where was the release he’d expect to come with that revelation?

“Go on,” he suggested quietly. Pryor’s look was accusing, as though they’d made a deal to meet halfway, half the story as full and final settlement.

“You were there…” she tried weakly.