“When Liam died, one of the things we found by his body was this little wishbone. We showed all the objects to Danny Kelner, and she identified this object as belonging to Liam. He had made it and she told us that he wore it on a leather thong. We assumed it had come off during the struggle.”

“But—” began Jude.

“Exactly. When I saw you yesterday you were wearing the same wishbone round your neck and you said you’d taken it from Liam’s luggage when you were staying in the cottage in Norfolk.”

“He made four of them,” Jude said slowly. She still didn’t quite understand. “For his family. Each of them has one.”

“I know that now. Now. So the question was, if it didn’t belong to Liam, who did it belong to?”

Jude thought for a moment. Everything seemed so hard. Then she remembered. Snap, he had said, and shown it to her.

“Dermot was wearing his. I saw it.”

“He was wearing Tara’s. I called Tara and Andy Birch and they confirmed that Liam had made one for each of them, but Tara said she had lost hers a week or so ago. She had looked for it everywhere. We believe Dermot took it. He must have realized he’d left his at the crime scene.”

“Poor Tara,” said Jude, running her hand through her sweaty hair. “How will she bear it?” She felt a sudden shock of awareness. “But why are you just sitting here? You need to find him.”

“Do you have any idea where he might go?”

“How would I know? He looked desperate, out of control. Home to his parents?”

“We’ve already sent officers there, although it seems unlikely he would go to the first place we would look.”

Jude thought about where someone would run if they wanted to escape being caught. She imagined forests, seas, dark alleyways, cartoonish disguises, as if Dermot was in an old-fashioned movie about a life unraveling. Where would she go, if it was her? She pictured him blundering around with his scalded face, terrified and nowhere to hide.

“I barely know him,” she said helplessly. “I know nothing about his life.”

“All right,” said Leila. “Now, you should go and get sorted. Go back to your flat and collect a few of your things. You’re not staying there.”

“Because he might come back?”

“That’s right, though it’s highly unlikely. Do you have anywhere you can go?”

“I was about to move out to a friend’s anyway.”

“Call them. Tell them you’ll be there shortly.”

“I don’t have my phone.”

“I do.”

Leila dipped her hand into her coat pocket and drew out Jude’s mobile. Jude scrolled down to Dee’s number.

“It’s me,” she said when Dee answered. “Can I come round now?”

As she spoke, a sob lodged in her throat.