‘I’m not saying we don’t,’ he hisses, pulling on my arm. ‘Just let me tell Olivia, plan it out properly, have a calm conversation with a tight group who can extract us if need be. It took weeks to perfect the trafficking undercover. Sure, I whined my head off, but do you think I wanted to get nailed to a chair with no recourse? You want to take on a state-sponsored coverup controlled by powerful people who want your silence above all else, just with me shivering behind the fucking door?’

‘We don’t have time, Dom, don’t you see? Every minute that ticks by is another minute they could spend discrediting anything I could possibly do or say against them. They’ve already frozen all my accounts – suddenly I haven’t got a penny to my name. It will be my flat next. They know I know about Kayleigh now…’

Again just saying her name blocks the rest.

‘So let me make it real then,’ he says, falling in step beside me. ‘You’ve got to make them believe you’re still on side, that you’re no risk to the operation. You have to give them dynamite. You can’t make this up on the fly.’

‘I can handle it,’ I say, speeding up as we weave through the crowds, away from the station. ‘There’s nothing left that I don’t know about this case, nothing I don’t still feel inside my bones, watch replaying in the dark every time the lights go out—’

‘Yes, there is.’ I jerk as Dominic grabs my bad elbow. ‘Let me remind you of what you’ve said yourself. Versions of the truth are leaking all over the place, and it turns out you didn’t know the half of it. The press conference proves that. The Met sprung it on everyone so it could control the narrative. It’s been deliberately planned and orchestrated – how do you think I got a copy of a photo? I won’t be the only one with it either.’

I freeze, pain radiating up my arm. He’s right, of course he is. And I don’t have the source Perseus and his mates are looking for, 241I’ve got nothing to tell them they don’t already know. In all our feverish conversation, Dominic hasn’t once let it slip.

‘Why should I trust you about things I know better than I know myself?’

‘Because I know what it is to hide, Marie. I know what it is to bury parts of yourself so deep you think you’ll never have to confront them, only to find them worming out no matter what—’

‘No, you don’t. You can’t possibly—’