Drummond was waiting for me in the kitchen and I could see from his face that he was gagging to tell me something. He held up a plastic evidence bag containing what looked like one of Carver’s smartphones.

‘We’ve got the bastard,’ he said, a triumphant note in his voice. ‘The text messages to us were sent from this phone, which we’ve managed to get into. Carver hasn’t bothered to delete them and I suspect that was because he didn’t think this would ever fall into our hands.’

‘Is there any evidence to suggest that Slack put him up to it?’ I asked.

‘Not yet, but if we don’t find it I’m sure we can persuade Carver to rat on his boss. He won’t want to take the fall by himself.’

Drummond’s own phone rang again and he answered it. As he listened, I watched how his features tightened and his posture changed. I wondered if he was being given good or bad news.

When he hung up, he looked at me and said, ‘The team have had a result with the word Bridges. It’s not a person or a house. It’s a hotel called Bridges over in Vauxhall. It came up in an online search and someone had the good sense to ring the place to see if they had any guests named Maria Rodriquez. And they do.’

‘My God.’

‘We have to go straight there,’ he said. ‘You come with me. Leave your car here and you can pick it up later.’

68

Rosa

‘There’s something I need to tell you,’ Rosa said. ‘I can’t hold it in any longer.’

Alice rolled over on the bed so that they were facing each other.

‘I’m all ears, babe,’ she said, smiling. ‘What is it?’

They were both breathing heavily, and their naked bodies glistened with perspiration. That was because they’d been going at it since they’d arrived back at the apartment an hour ago. Another blast of sensational sex that had left them both satisfied but exhausted.

It was now almost midnight, and Rosa felt she couldn’t let the day end without saying what she’d wanted to say all evening. She knew it was a risk and that it might cause the most wonderful day of her life to end in disaster.

But she had to get it off her chest because if she didn’t she knew that she wouldn’t be able to sleep.

‘So come on, babe,’ Alice said, her smile faltering. ‘What is it you want to tell me?’

Rosa put a hand against Alice’s cheek, and as she did so she felt the skin tighten at the back of her neck.