‘Hannah Ribbons was the OIC for a blackmail case. Callie Evans was one of the victims, along with four or five other girls around the same age. Callie is Danny Evans’s daughter. The families of those girls, they’re all pissed off at the police, there’s no offender. You should have called me.’

‘How do you know—’

‘I told you I worked with Hannah when she was child protection. I didn’t work this case but I knew about it and I knew how obsessed she was with it. The fact we didn’t get anyone in for it isn’t down to Hannah, she couldn’t have done more. Source handling was her dream job, but it came at the wrong time, she said as much. She didn’t want to leave the Callie Evans job. So Danny Evans must have been angry at her for what happened to his daughter.’

‘What did happen? I’m on my way to the wife now. It seems she’s with her daughter.’

‘At the hospital.’

‘Yes.’

‘I’ll meet you there. Don’t talk to her without me. They’re upset enough as it is without you turning up and knowing nothing about that whole investigation.’

Joel took a breath. ‘I’m not as stupid as you think I am. And we’ve had this conversation, the one where you respect my rank even if you don’t respect my ability.’ Joel waited. The reply followed a short silence.

‘You’re right, I don’t mean to snap at you. But Hannah … she did everything she could …’

‘Sharon Evans is at the William Harvey. I’ll meet you in the lobby,’ Joel said, then added: ‘We need to do everything we can too. Think about whether you’re helping or hindering that right now.’

Chapter 33

Sharon Evans nodded to thank the nurse who had just left a cup of tea by Callie’s bedside. Sharon had stepped out from a room that was just off the main ward and labelled ‘Relatives Room’, having finished a tense phone call with her boss about when he could expect her to return. Sharon had explained that Callie was changing all the time – improving – and if she could just have another few days the picture might be entirely different. She worked for a haulage company, part of a busy team. There were enough workers to cover someone taking the odd day off or an irregular hour or two to pick up kids from school, but she was well beyond that. Her team had been great, the company overall had been great, everyone telling her how much they understood that she needed to be somewhere else – but the tone was changing. That phone call was the first time she sensed that the phrase ‘of course we understand’ was about to be followed by the word ‘but’. It didn’t quite happen, but it was coming.