‘Then there’s about fifty people at least who would probably want to throw a party. She’s evil. She knew what she was doing to me. She knows what she did to other people. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. She played me and didn’t care how I felt. Why should I care about her?’

Mark’s brain decided to throw in an unwanted thought. Like those times when you’re stood on a train platform and wonder what would happen if you pushed the obnoxious bloke standing near the edge in front of an oncoming train. Or strangled the person who just pushed in front of you in a queue.

He really wanted Emily’s body to suddenly turn up, so he could get out of this nightmare of teenagers and their problems.

That wasn’t an option. He felt another part of him shift, a weight of responsibility.

This was his job.

He was going to find out what happened to Emily. He was going to find answers.

And as he felt that, a rush of adrenaline ran through his body and he almost smiled.

‘I need the names of everyone you know that she did this to.’

He was sitting in the car, making sure his notes were thorough enough, when his mobile buzzed on the dashboard where he’d left it. Mark reached across, looked at the screen and smiled. He should have ignored it, but decided he needed to hear a friendly voice.

‘Hi,’ Mark said, laying his notes down beside him with one hand. ‘Sorry…’

‘For what? It’s me that should be saying sorry. I just crashed out last night. Had a long day of it.’ Natasha’s voice was light, but he could hear eagerness behind it. He felt soothed by it. ‘I hope you didn’t get too lonely.’

‘It’s okay,’ Mark replied. ‘I probably wouldn’t have been much use anyway. Really busy couple of days.’

‘I saw. Was it the missing woman?’

Mark hesitated, wanting to be open with her, but remembering they didn’t really know each other that well. ‘No. Well… I don’t know yet. The body found wasn’t her, but we’re not sure if it’s linked yet.’

‘Ah, right. What was I saying to you the other night, hey? All these young women – it’s an epidemic. I got caught up in the same kind of thing yesterday.’

Mark listened, happy to hear her voice. It felt right, though he couldn’t help but wonder how this could have happened in such a short space of time.

He realised he missed her.

‘Listen, I’ll see you later. What time do you think you’ll finish?’

Mark looked at the clock, then shrugged his shoulders, as if she could see him. ‘Not sure. I’ll message you, if that’s okay?’