She prayed it wasn’t Amy, her cheeks flushing in shame with the memory of the not-proposal. Then, for a moment she thought—hoped—it could be Ruby, who might have turned her phone on when she awoke this morning and saw the missed calls. But no, neither. It was Atkinson.

“I thought I told you to go home.”

“We think we’ve found her. The woman and the kid who were staying in Gregor’s flat. We’ve got a woman on CCTV leaving the building and heading straight across the forecourt, holding a child of about the right age. This was yesterday, in the morning. She’s got her hood up, and she’s hurrying. I can’t say exactly what drew me to her, but she just stood out from the crowd, you know?”

Jo did know. Copper’s nose was real, and Atkinson had a good one.

He went on. “So, we traced her movements. We’ve got images of her going to the train station and buying a ticket. The whole time, she’s facing away from the cameras, as if she’s avoiding them getting an image of her face.”

“Where did she travel to? Can you get a hold of the train station ticket office people?”

“Not right now, boss. The ticket office is shut. Opens in an hour.”

“Well, shake them up, Constable. We need a good image of her.”

“Are you at the hospital?” asked Atkinson. “How’s Franks?”

“Not good. He’s got a load of drugs in his system. They don’t think he can survive.”

“Drugs? I didn’t see anything at the flat, no packets or bottles or anything.”

“Me neither. Let’s see if the CSI search turns up anything.”

“Maybe the person who attacked him also spiked him, just to make sure?”

“That’s why I like you, Steve. Always striving to see the best in people.”

“I learned from the best, boss.”

She smiled grimly.

Atkinson said, “It makes it even more urgent that we find this woman, though, if his condition is so critical. I think we need to do a media shout-out. Local radio, TV. Someone will have seen her face, even if the cameras didn’t.”

Jo thought of Amy, and the time before they’d been a couple, when she would have been the first person to call in this situation. Perhaps one day, that would be the case again.

“Good idea. I’ll leave it with you, if you don’t mind.”

“No problem.”

“After that, go home, will you? You haven’t slept.” She hung up before he could point out that she hadn’t either.