‘And to ease your mind further,’ Carr said. ‘We do look for patterns in the data, all of the time. Locations, timings, age, sex, race, lifestyle. If we felt there was any connection here, any reason to believe these people had been killed, and by the same person, we would already have alerted you.’

Dani said nothing to that.

‘Can we take those?’ Dani asked, nodding at Carr’s bundle of papers.

‘Of course,’ Gregory said. ‘The full details of each case is in the HOLMES system too. CCTV, the lot.’

‘Ok,’ Dani said, getting to her feet. ‘Thank you both for your time.’

‘We’re here to help,’ Gregory said, his words at odds with his tone.

‘So what do you think?’ Fletcher asked Dani as they walked back towards the car.

‘That we need to check all of these out. Speak to friends, family to see if any of these women is our Jane Doe.’

‘Is that all you’re looking to do? Or are you trying to suggest there’s a link here between some of these other cases?’

Dani didn’t answer that.

Fletcher checked her phone.

‘Shit. I really need to get back to HQ.’

Dani raised an eyebrow. ‘Anything I should know about?’

Fletcher went to say something but stopped herself. ‘No. It’s nothing, really.’

As if on cue Dani’s phone buzzed too. She lifted it from her pocket. It was Easton calling.

‘You carry on,’ Fletcher said. ‘I’ll get an Uber back.’

‘You sure?’ Dani asked, holding the phone up to her ear, her finger hovering over the button to accept the call.

‘Yeah. Don’t worry.’

Fletcher turned and headed off without another thought. Dani answered the call.

‘You’re not going to believe this,’ Easton said.

‘I’m not?’

‘The old lady. Mrs Staunton. She found a bruise on her neck. I’m no doctor but I’m pretty damn sure it’s from a syringe. She was drugged.’

‘I’m coming now.’

She pulled the phone away from her ear and looked back over to Fletcher who was wobbling along the road towards the high street, one hand on her belly.

‘Are you sure you don’t want a lift?’ Dani shouted.

Was it her imagination or was Fletcher being deliberately shady? Wanting to butt in on Dani’s new case but unwilling to be open about what else she was up to, even though McNair had suggested Dani should be sharing her colleague’s workload? Or Maybe Dani was just being overly sensitive given how vulnerable she was still feeling about her return to her old life.

‘I’m fine,’ Fletcher said, not turning around.

Dani shook her head and pushed the thought away. The truth was, right then she was more focused on what Easton had just said anyway.

She opened her car door, sank down into the driver’s seat and fired up the engine.

Chapter Eight