Georgia’s face turned sour. ‘Knew each other? What do you mean? I’m not saying they were shagging or anything like that.’

Dani felt her phone vibrating in her bag, the fifth time it’d done so in the last couple of minutes.

‘Sorry, just give me a second.’

She fished it out and saw it was Jason.

‘I’ll just be a moment.’

She answered the call.

‘Where are you?’ Jason asked.

‘Why?’

‘I’m at your apartment.’

‘My apartment?’

‘I need to speak to you, Dani. We’ve got some results.’

‘From the notes?’

‘Yeah. And some more from Harland’s apartment.’

She felt a surge of anticipation, though Jason’s tone worried her.

‘And?’

‘And we found nothing on the notes. Nothing at all except for your fingerprints.’

‘Damn,’ Dani said. ‘And the other stuff?’

‘Well, that’s the thing. The blood traces from Harland’s flat did match with Reeve. Not with Natalya though.’

‘So that knife really was the murder weapon?’

‘It looks like it. For Reeve at least. The thing is though, Dani, we found no fingerprints or hair or anything else to directly link the knife or clothes to Harland. Or Ethan Grant, for that matter.’

‘Really? That’s odd.’

‘It is. And that’s not the oddest part. Because we did find some prints on the knife, and also some hairs in that pile of clothes.’

‘Whose?’

‘They’re yours, Dani.’

Chapter Fifty-One

‘Where’s Annie?’ Grant asked as he sat down at the kitchen table.

Mary was by the counter, spooning out stew onto two plates.

‘She’s coming,’ Mary said. ‘Just getting ready.’

‘Going out again?’

‘She’s a teenager.’

‘She’s never here anymore. You don’t think she’s got a boyfriend, do you?’

‘Does it really matter if she has?’

Grant said nothing to that.

‘Come on, Steven. It’s going to happen sooner or later.’

‘That’s not it,’ Grant said. ‘I’m not an idiot. It’s who she’s hanging out with that I’m bothered about.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘It means it wasn’t that long ago she was telling us how Ethan and his lowlife friend Jimmy were hooking up with her friends. And not just hooking up, but having sex with them too. The thought of Annie… I can’t even bring myself to say it.’

Grant’s mood sank further with the talk of Ethan and his no-good friends.

What had that boy got himself mixed up in?

Mary placed a dinner plate overflowing with boiled vegetables and stew in front of Grant, then took the seat opposite and set down her plate, containing a slightly smaller portion. Grant took a deep inhalation of meaty vapour. It smelled sublime and he felt his tummy rumble with anticipation.

‘You like her, don’t you?’ Mary said, her eyes on her food.

‘Annie?’

‘No, you idiot,’ Mary said. ‘That detective. You like her.’

‘I’m intrigued by her.’