‘You’re not welcome here any more, Kealty,’ Powell said. ‘You know the way out.’

Powell didn’t wait for a reply. Maybe he was afraid of the response his humiliating tirade would provoke? Or perhaps he simply didn’t care? He marched across the room, went into his private office and slammed the door.

Harri was left to face the pitying looks of Watson, Romney, Juneja and her other former colleagues. Some went beyond pitying and their thin smiles told her they positively enjoyed her humiliation. She was too stunned to react immediately. She hadn’t considered Sabih was obliged to file an official report, and was annoyed at her own naivety.

‘ “You know the way out”?’ She finally found her voice. ‘This investigation wouldn’t exist without me.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Sabih said.

‘You should tattoo that on your forehead. Thanks for screwing up the only thing I had going for me.’

‘Harri, I’m—’

‘It’s one thing to tell him about the investigation. But you didn’t have to tell Powell I dated Elmys.’

Sabih was about to respond, but Harri didn’t give him the chance. She got up and stormed out, ignoring the gleeful looks she got from some of her former colleagues.

Harri was shaking when she finally made it outside. Her mind raced with all the things she could have said to Powell. She hated him even more for the way he’d humiliated her in front of people who already held her in such low regard. Her cheeks burned and she longed for a way to vent her fury, but she would just have to swallow it and accept it as part of her, like so much of the negativity she’d experienced these past weeks.

Her phone rang, and when she pulled it from her pocket, she fumbled and dropped it. She prayed the screen hadn’t shattered against the pavement, but when she picked it up she saw a spider’s web of cracks splitting the glass.

Great. Just great.

Tears formed as she answered the call. ‘Hello,’ she said, almost choking on the word.

‘Ms Kealty?’ a woman’s voice asked.

‘Yes.’

‘It’s Sarah Abiola from Keele. Would you be able to come out here? We need to talk.’

Chapter 22

Harri had shed the worst of her tears on the drive over. She couldn’t believe Sabih had betrayed her. She’d sacrificed everything for him. He wouldn’t even be alive if it hadn’t been for her, and he’d rewarded her by breaking promises he’d made to ‘always have her back’ and ‘never forget what she’d done’. He’d laid her personal life bare and worst of all he’d exposed it to Powell, the man who’d done most to ruin her. The man who could have taken her side and backed her in disciplinary proceedings, but who instead seized the opportunity to drive the knife in.

She sobbed at the betrayal. She’d given so much of herself to the job, and everything for Sabih, and it still wasn’t enough. They felt they could throw her out like rotting trash.