Thoughts of the past dismissed, Sarah parked her Mini next to the pavement and wrenched up the handbrake. The car was getting on in years and would soon have to be replaced. ‘Not yet though, old girl.’ She patted the steering wheel before glancing up at the window where Gabby was standing. She raised her hand uncertainly, but Gabby turned away. Her face was so gaunt, she could have been a ghost.

Sarah pressed her finger against the buzzer and waited for the door to click open. The stairwell was clean but cold and she smiled at a young woman as she passed her on the wide landing. She counted the numbers. At the end of the hall on the fourth floor was Gabby’s flat.

‘Hello?’ she said, pushing open the front door which had been left ajar. The room was bright and spacious, with high ceilings and big windows behind plantation blinds, but as she entered she wondered if she had wandered into the wrong apartment. Clothes were draped over furniture, piles of newspapers were stacked on the table, and cardboard boxes filled every corner of the room. Gabby’s walls were a stark eggshell blue throughout – no family photos or framed prints to give the room some character. It looked almost as if she’d been burgled, and what they hadn’t taken they’d left in piles. Sarah’s gaze roamed over the cream sofa which was littered with paperwork and ‘Missing’ posters of Jahmelia. The flat wasn’t dirty, but it was a chaotic mess. It was a shock to see the state that such a competent, well-groomed woman was living in.

‘Tea or coffee?’ Gabby’s voice rose from a kitchen just off the living room.

‘Whatever you’re having, milk, no sugar, thanks.’

‘Make some room on the sofa,’ Gabby said a minute later, carrying the cups in. Dark shadows beneath her eyes suggested sleep had been a stranger, but Gabby was still smartly dressed in a designer shirt and jeans.

‘How are you doing?’ Sarah said, after quickly updating her on the case.

As she sat across from her, Gabby’s frustration was evident on her face. ‘I’m not doing, that’s the problem. I’m sitting. I’m pacing, I’m screaming at the television. I’m hounding Bryony for updates when I should be the one updating them! But I’m not doing. I should be in the office with the rest of the team. Both of us should.’

‘Then go there,’ Sarah said. ‘Tell the DI you want in.’ Sarah hadn’t spoken to Bernard lately because he was so wrapped up in the case.

‘I can’t,’ Gabby exhaled a terse sigh. ‘He won’t let me near the place. As for your acting sergeant …’ She rolled her eyes. ‘She thinks her shit’s custard, that one.’