For a moment Melissa smiled snidely, but just as quickly her expression returned to normal. ‘Of the fact that Callum’s trusting you to do this, for one thing,’ she said. ‘And there’s the book, too. Maybe it’s not enough by itself, but it could still be important. You should have heard Callum singing your praises for thinking on your feet like that. For asking Father Steiner to sign it. Lance would never have thought of that. And he knows he wouldn’t have. That’s partly what’s bothering him, too.’

Ben looked towards the door, wondering what, exactly, Callum had said about him.

‘He was seriously impressed, Ben,’ Melissa said, as though reading Ben’s thoughts. ‘And, well … I was impressed, too.’

When Ben looked back at her, she seemed to colour slightly. A strand of hair fell across her eyes, and she used a finger to tuck it behind her ear. As she did so, Ben noticed a red mark on her wrist. It looked painful, like a burn.

‘So, are you ready?’ she said, and she unsnapped the cap from the lens of the camera. She turned back, and appeared to notice Ben stiffen.

She smiled again, and although Ben wasn’t sure why, her expression was even more unsettling than the smile she’d showed before. ‘Relax,’ she said. ‘I promise it won’t hurt a bit.’

Friday 25 October, 9.28 a.m.

‘So she was looking for him,’ Fleet said.

‘I’d say she was more than looking for him,’ Nicky replied. ‘I’d say she found him.’

They were in Fleet’s office, catching each other up on their progress the previous day. Fleet had recounted his interview with Callum Richardson; Nicky was filling Fleet in on what she’d discovered at Shining Light.

‘Lance’s address was written on a notepad in Melissa’s room,’ Nicky said. ‘His name was all over the search history of a computer she had access to. More to the point, it was all on the day the rumours about Ben’s body being discovered first started appearing online. Which also happens to be the day Melissa vanished from the shelter. It’s not exactly conclusive, but …’

‘But it makes her a suspect,’ Fleet said. ‘She was already in the frame for Ben’s murder. And now she’s tied directly to Lance’s. Christ. And there we were worrying about her safety.’

They were huddled around the screen of Fleet’s computer. The CCTV footage from Callum Richardson’s living room was paused at the moment the intruder gazed up at the camera. Richardson’s solicitor had provided Fleet with a copy of the footage at the end of their meeting, and Fleet had already watched it so many times, he knew the precise sequence of steps the figure took as they moved towards the camera from the door.