I’m such an idiot. I really don’t care that much about my own image, but Gemma is right. I’ve broadcasted the story of my niece and nephew’s murderous father to the nation. I’ve brought them into it.

And the worst part is that I’ve no memory of the interview. Who did I speak to? When? Did they trick me or did I just willingly give them everything they needed for the prized scoop?

What is happening to me?

Chapter Eighteen

Dani awoke from her drug-eased sleep just after seven in the morning. Not surprisingly she felt anything but refreshed. Even though the fear and panic of arriving home the night before seemed distant and nothing more than an irrational overreaction, the unhappy end to the couple of hours she’d spent with Jason was still playing on her mind.

She checked her phone, saw there was a message from him.

Thanks for tonight. Sorry how it ended. It was great to see you.

She tutted and scrolled up the page to see the other texts from him that were still on her phone. He’d last texted her three months ago, though she guessed the lack of contact since then was more down to her than him. Once again she didn’t bother to reply. Instead, she checked to see if there was any update on Paul Reeve. There was none. Did that mean they hadn’t found him yet?

She got up from the bed and set about getting herself ready for the day ahead. When she was showered and dressed and appropriately medicated, she closed the apartment door behind her and headed towards the stairwell. She was soon out in the street and walking alongside the canal towards the revamped Brindleyplace area in central Birmingham. She headed past the closed bars and restaurants, through the looming glass-fronted International Convention Centre and then onward past the oddity that was the newly erected Library of Birmingham, that to Dani basically looked like a gold-cladded chimney and had cost two hundred million pounds at a time of supposed austerity. Still, at least it looked better on the inside.

From there Dani headed past chugging dump trucks and cranes and booming diggers, in the midst of further redevelopment around the area known as Paradise Circus – yeah, real paradise – and onto Colmore Row, heading towards HQ. But HQ wasn’t her destination. Not yet anyway. Dani had set Easton up to track down Paul Reeve. She would have happily been involved in that herself, but there really was no need to cause a fuss so soon after returning to work by not keeping to her agreed programme of rehabilitation. So instead she would go to an appointment that she really didn’t want to have to keep, but had no choice about. Not if she wanted to continue as a DI under McNair’s watch anyway.