‘Don’t you think it’s odd?’ Laura persisted. ‘It doesn’t make sense, does it?’ she repeated. Though of course there was one explanation. Mia had her sights set on something else. Something in particular. Laura’s job. And for some reason she was willing to risk her career because she wanted Laura’s.

‘You’re right, it doesn’t,’ Katie said eventually.

Laura hung up the call and wandered out into the office, scanning the floor until she found Mia lingering by the far window, her hand resting on Henrietta James’s arm. Her loud bursts of laughter rang out sharply above the murmured conversations, until everything around Laura muffled into one blurred buzzing that rang through her ears.

Mia was befriending these women as if she was making herself indispensable, and it was all Laura could do to stop herself running across the office and demanding to know why she was there, because she didn’t like it. She didn’t like it one bit.

‘There you are.’

Laura turned sharply as Harry walked towards her, his jacket on, one hand tucked into his jeans pocket.

‘You ready?’

‘Ready?’

He hung his head, brows furrowed questioningly, flicking up his wrist, which in turn made his gold Rolex flash in the light. ‘It’s quarter to eleven, Laura. We need to get going, if we want to walk to the quay.’

‘But I thought …’ Laura pressed the button on her phone to check the time. ‘I thought we were meeting at eleven-thirty.’

Harry shook his head. ‘Eleven.’ He nodded towards her desk. ‘You’d better grab your stuff. Don’t want to keep Miles waiting.’

‘Shit, okay – give me a minute,’ she said, as Harry jostled anxiously from one foot to the other. He was clearly keen to make a good impression on this old friend of his.

‘Baby-brain!’ Harry joked as she walked away, making a few of the nearby staff chuckle and Laura shudder. She glared at them and then back at him, and wondered how she was going to focus on impressing Miles Morgan when she was so wrapped up in Mia and what the hell she was doing here.

Tuesday 14 May

Interview between DC Emily Marlow and Nathan (Nate) Denning, following the fire on Monday 13 May

Marlow:Mr Denning, I know you say you and your wife didn’t speak when she finally came home last night, but did she tell you anything about the fire at the Morris & Wood offices?

Nate:No! Of course not. You’re saying that like you think she knew about it. How could she?

Marlow:She didn’t say that she’d seen it?

Nate:No! She got a call this morning.

Marlow:Were you there when she received the call?

Nate:Yes. I was with her in the kitchen.

Marlow:And you believe that was the first she heard of it?

Nate:Of course – yes. Of course it was. I don’t understand. What is this about?