A single overhead light was on in the basement. The space looked like a workshop, filled with all manner of racking and tools.

‘Jason?’

He was standing over by one of the shelves with his back to her.

As he turned around, she saw he was wearing plastic gloves.

‘Why haven’t you called for backup? For forensics?’

‘Have you seen this?’ he held out his hand. He was clutching a pendant.

Dani didn’t move from the spot.

‘I’ve seen photos from Rebecca Hargreaves, of her and Natalya together. Natalya always wore this necklace.’

He placed it back on the shelf then took another item.

‘A student’s union card for Jessica Bradford,’ Jason said.

Dani gulped.

Jason held up a small plastic wallet. ‘A railcard for a Grace Agnew.’

Dani was speechless.

‘It’s all here, Dani. All of it. You were right.’

‘Jason.’ Dani’s voice was strong and stern. ‘We have to call this in.’

He shook his head. Took something else from the shelf.

‘And this?’

Dani’s face fell as she stared at the object in Jason’s hand. She felt shock. Anger. Betrayal. Terror. A whole mix of emotions struggled to take hold.

‘My diary,’ she said. ‘But how…?’

But Dani already knew how. It had been taken the day the second note had been left. So someone really had been in her apartment.

Someone. Or was the answer far simpler than that? After all, there were only two people who knew about her diary…

‘You know,’ Jason said, ‘even though I was utterly confused when I saw this here, it was heartening when I started to read through. For a few moments I forgot where I was. What I was doing here. My head was with you again, back in the hospital. Back in the apartment after you’d been sent home. I knew you were writing this at the time, but I never saw your problems through your eyes before.’

The diary had become a real solace for Dani after her TBI. At the suggestion of one of her doctors she’d written at length about her recovery, about her mixed emotions, about her troubles finding herself again and reconnecting with the world and with Jason.

‘But then I got to the most recent chapters.’

He tossed the book over to her. She caught it. Confused, she flicked through to the back pages. She hadn’t written anything in the diary for months. Not since the day she’d kicked Jason out of her apartment. But sure enough, there was a whole host of new entries she’d not seen before. Dani frowned.

‘That’s your writing,’ Jason said. ‘Isn’t it?’

Dani said nothing. Was it her writing? It looked like it could be. But she couldn’t remember writing any of it. She read some of the gruesome words. Gory details through a killer’s eyes. Grace Agnew. Natalya. Jessica Bradford. It was all there.