But then a flash of doubt swept through her. How far ahead had Harland been? Could he have shouted out like that, and she just hadn’t heard? Had she been too focussed on getting to him?

‘Can you think of a reason why Harland would say those things?’ Barlow asked.

‘I’ve no idea,’ Dani said. ‘The witnesses are lying.’

Barlow raised her eyebrows. ‘Lying.’

‘Yes! They’re lying, that did not happen.’

‘Why would the witnesses lie to us?’

‘I don’t bloody know!’ Dani shouted, finally losing her cool. ‘Why don’t you ask them?’

Who the hell were these witnesses anyway?

Dani thought back to the chase. The woman with the pram. Other nearby pedestrians. The teenagers at the flats. Was it them? Causing trouble for the sake of it?

‘DI Stephens?’ Barlow said. ‘Do you have anything else to add?’

‘No. I’m all done.’

Dani walked back out onto the street outside HQ, her head heavy and numb. Thick drops of rain pelted down from the dark afternoon sky but Dani stood there staring into space.

‘Dani, what are you doing?’

It was Jason. He came from behind and put a hand under her armpit, pulling her along, away from HQ.

‘You’re soaked through,’ he said, lifting a golfing umbrella up over both of their heads.

‘I’m not crazy,’ Dani said. ‘Am I?’

‘What? No, Dani, you’re not.’

Then what the hell was that all about with Harland and the witnesses? She wondered. Her memories felt so clear but were they really?

‘Let’s get out of the rain,’ Jason said. ‘We can grab a coffee.’

‘I’d rather have something a bit stronger.’

Jason said nothing to that.

He led them around the corner to a coffee shop Dani hadn’t been to before, that was decked out in the increasingly ubiquitous shabby-chic style. She couldn’t remember what the unit had been in the past – a sandwich shop perhaps? They ordered their drinks and took a seat on a worn brown leather sofa in a quiet spot in the corner. Dani wrapped her hands around the large mug, still deep in thought.

‘How did it go?’ Jason asked, breaking the silence.

‘I really don’t know,’ Dani said. ‘I told them the truth. That’s all I can do.’

But was what she’d told really what happened? Was it her version of events that was wrong? Was her mind playing tricks on her like it had so many times in the recent past?

Jason wisely chose to not try and make the situation better than it really was, staying silent instead.

‘I saw Easton in the foyer,’ Dani said. ‘He clammed up so tight when he spotted me I thought he’d had cement for breakfast.’

‘The guy’s actually alright,’ Jason said. ‘He’s got a promising future.’

‘He’s working with you now?’

‘Yeah. You heard about Fletcher, didn’t you?’