“I can okay it. Where do I sign?”

“I was hoping you’d obtained that court order, in the absence of next of kin?”

“I don’t need one,” said Jo. “Not if it’s part of a police inquiry and in the public interest. As the SIO I can authorize it for the purposes of assisting the current investigation.”

“But the study isn’t part of the investigation, Detective.”

“It will be if you let me sit in the control room.”

“I honestly don’t see how …”

Joanna pointed at the still form of the man who, until recently, she’d thought was called Gregor Franks, lying on his back in the hospital bed. “He knows things. If I can gauge his reaction to some questions I have, it might make the difference between finding the little girl we’re looking for and not finding her.”

The doctor paused, considering.

“I need to make some calls first. And it’ll take a while to get the patient ready for the scan and have him brought up from the ward. I hope you’re not in a hurry.”

After the doctor left, Joanna walked up to the bedside and stood next to the man who had been living as Gregor Franks. She watched his motionless face. “Soon I’ll be able to speak to you and see how you react,” she said. There was no response. She bent closer. “You won’t be able to hide for much longer, whoever you are. I’m going to see right inside your brain.”

While she waited in the control room of the MRI, Joanna dialed Ruby’s number and listened again to the bot reciting the phone-switched-off message. She pulled out the phone she’d taken from Gregor’s flat and looked at it. It couldn’t tell her anything more than it had when she’d gone through it the night before—it was Ruby’s old phone, and it hadn’t been used since September. The missed calls page made her sad, but not as sad as the gallery, where she found only one photo of herself, grimacing, trying to avoid being captured. She remembered Ruby taking it, laughing at Joanna’s camera-phobia, how Jo had held up a hand to try to block the lens. She wished now that she’d simply smiled, like a normal person.

The door opened and Atkinson entered.

“Jo. What the hell are you doing?”

“How come you’re here, Steve?”

“I came to find you. Someone from the hospital contacted me to confirm we were okay to go ahead with some kind of fancy scan on Franks. Apparently, you’ve said it’s part of the investigation.”

“Well, it is. They can look inside his brain. I’m going to see how he reacts to certain things.”

“But he can’t answer.”