Dani drove. To start with the two DIs were somewhat cheery and chatty as they caught up, but the initial novelty of seeing each other after so long quickly wore off and awkwardness crept in. The massive elephant remained in the room – or car. Sooner or later they’d have to talk about it. And that would be the case with every one of Dani’s colleagues.

Dani glanced over at Fletcher and caught her staring at the scar, much like Bill and Easton had earlier. Christ, how long was she going to have to deal with this? Yeah, it was only her first day but did everyone have to be so damn obvious?

‘I’m glad you’re ok,’ Fletcher said, quickly looking back to the road. Dani gritted her teeth. How many times had she already heard that same line today? ‘I don’t know how I could’ve coped with… what happened.’

‘I don’t have a choice but to cope,’ Dani said, putting her foot down as the light turned green.

‘You were lucky.’

‘No. Not really.’

‘Just be glad that he got what he deserved, eventually. And that was all down to you.’

‘What he deserved? I’m not too sure about that.’

‘He can’t harm anyone now.’

‘But the problem is, Susan, the damage has already been done.’

They soon arrived in Harborne, just a few miles from the centre of Birmingham. Dani parked up in the staff car park and stepped out, eyeing up the building in front of her. It looked like a bog standard 1980s redbrick office block, and dominated the otherwise residential street that was crammed with simple terraced houses. The station was bustling with activity. The sprawling building housed not just the local nick for the suburb, but also several of West Midlands Police’s administrative and specialist teams, Missing Persons among them.

DI Gregory, a slightly overweight man in his forties with thin hair on top of his head but an almost impossibly thick goatee beard covering his chin, met Dani and Fletcher outside. The three shook hands. Gregory didn’t let on that he recognised Dani, though she could see that telltale look in his eyes that told her he knew who she was. The Homicide and Missing Persons teams worked closely together, most often when an unidentified body was found. But Dani hadn’t met Gregory before, and Fletcher too had said in the car that she didn’t know him, suggesting he was a recent addition to the team.

Gregory escorted them inside and up the stairs to the third floor.

‘I’ve asked one of my DSs, Jane Carr, to join us too,’ he said as they headed across the somewhat outdated open-plan office space. ‘She’s much more into the detail than I am on a lot of the cases.’

They moved through into a smaller enclosed office, which contained three desks with a round meeting table in the middle.