Dani knew she and Easton didn’t have any further appointments to get to, but she sensed they’d pushed enough. The Reeves’ lack of response to Dani’s question gave their answer, and Dani and Easton were soon back in the car, heading towards Birmingham.

‘Well the Reeve house is one unhappy place to be,’ Easton said.

‘You think they were being straight with us?’

‘Straight-ish. They probably know more about their son’s problems than they’re letting on, but I don’t think they’re holding back to be deliberately obtrusive.’

‘Yeah. I felt the same. And I’d say they’ve never heard of those women before, nor Jimmy Colton.’

Did that suggest Jimmy really was just an alias of Reeve’s rather than a real person? Maybe, maybe not.

‘We’ve already got Reeve’s mobile phone, right?’ Dani asked.

‘Yeah. Recovered at the crime scene. There was also a tablet and a laptop there.’

‘Good. We need to scour through his records, dig as far as we can into his life. His friends, his contacts. See who’s in the mix that shouldn’t be. Remember, he’s our murder victim, but we also have to treat him as what he is; a criminal who’s linked to the death of one woman and the disappearance of another.’

‘You think that’s what he is?’ Easton said. ‘Not just a victim but a suspect too?’

‘Maybe he killed Natalya. Maybe Grace Agnew too, but one thing is clear, he didn’t kill himself. Regardless of Reeve’s role here, there’s still at least one other party out there we need to identity and find. Reeve was a dealer. That’s an angle we have to cover.’

‘Do you think there really is a Jimmy Colton too? If so, he could be our guy.’

‘I honestly don’t know. But you can be damn sure that I’m going to find out.’

Chapter Twenty-Three

Grant arrived back home not long after six p.m. The game of golf had taken the four men through until lunchtime, and afterwards they’d settled in the bar for the obligatory stodgy food and pints of beer. Grant’s day had never quite recovered from his tantrum on the twelfth – either in a golfing or a social sense – but he’d had little choice than to tag along after the game; it was that or call a taxi home, which almost certainly would have been a questionable move in the other players’ eyes. He decided instead to suck it up and try and make the day as least bad as he could.