A young girl approached them and put her hand on Adrian Miles’ shoulder. She was overfamiliar and Parker could see Adrian’s obvious discomfort with the situation. He turned and looked at her, then looked away quickly. She didn’t remove her hand straight away and Parker discerned that maybe she was playing the same game Gillian was. He saw Gillian’s face change, both detectives preoccupied with the pretty young thing. Parker noted other students flashing glances the girl’s way. She was striking; even from this distance, Parker could see how different she was. There was a Helen of Troy quality about her, the kind of girl that made the male students behave in a way that seemed a little desperate in her presence. He even saw it in Detective Miles for the briefest of moments. It wasn’t so much beauty as a ‘knowing’ about the girl, as though she had the power to unlock some deep dark secret, not malevolent but curious and a little vulnerable.

It was Gillian who watched the girl the most intently as she batted her eyelashes at Adrian Miles; he pretended not to pay attention, but the girl wasn’t even hiding the fact that she was flirting with him. Parker saw the machinations of Gillian Mitchell’s mind whirring though. She had a plan and the girl was part of it.

Gillian walked away, leaving the detectives talking to the young girl. Parker saw the professor wait around the corner until the police left and then approach the young girl again, her skin shed. Parker was right about the girl; he could see that from their body language.

He got closer and listened to their conversation.

‘I need them looking somewhere else. I can’t have them snooping around here. At the very least I need them distracted. I think we need to give them something else to think about,’ Gillian Mitchell said.

‘I am already in enough trouble. I don’t see what I can do without getting nicked.’

‘You’re going to get that good-looking detective to sleep with you. And then when you are done, you are going to say he raped you. With that hanging over them, they won’t be able to concentrate on this at all and the media focus will definitely shift. The press will have a field day.’

‘What makes you think he will even do that?’

‘You’re a pretty girl and I saw the way he looked at you. You can tell he likes you. Men can’t resist something that’s offered to them on a plate.’

‘What will happen to him?’ The girl looked genuinely concerned.

‘That doesn’t even matter, the whole force will be sidelined from this mess once the local news gets hold of it, which I will make sure of.’

The girl was being instructed to lure DS Miles into a trap, apparently because the investigation needed to be derailed. The girl wasn’t as complicit as maybe Gillian Mitchell wanted her to be; Parker could see she was resisting.