‘Well,’ Paul’s tone was reasonable, ‘to ask her to back off from your boyfriend?’

‘No. I never talked to her. Connor said not to, so I wouldn’t have.’

Nell thought that was probably right. Kelly-Anne seemed the type to do whatever Connor told her.

‘Do the initials “A W” mean anything to you?’ Nell asked.

‘No, why?’

‘It’s just something we found at the flat where Connor died. We think it might be important. So, can you have another think?’

‘I don’t need to. I don’t know anyone with those initials.’

‘Not even from the pub?’ Paul pressed. ‘Not someone who told you about Connor going to the flat?’

Kelly-Anne shook her head, hugging herself more tightly. ‘No.’

They were losing her, Nell could tell. She gave it one last shot.

‘Do you know anyone called Mary?’

Kelly-Anne eyed her carefully. ‘No. Why?’

Nell felt a spark of adrenalin at her wariness. ‘We think a woman called Mary may be linked to Connor’s death.’

‘How?’

‘We don’t know. That’s why we’d like to find her.’

Kelly-Anne paled.

‘Do you know someone called Mary?’ Nell repeated.

‘No. I don’t know anyone called Mary.’

But the way she stressed the ‘know’ made Nell want to keep pushing.

‘Have you heard of anyone called Mary? Anyone spoken about her in your group of friends?’

‘No.’ She was staring at the table now, her tone almost sullen. Like a teenager, which, of course, she was.

‘Kelly-Anne.’ Nell waited until she looked up before continuing. ‘If you know something and aren’t telling us, that’s perverting the course of justice. If we find out, and we will, that charge carries almost as high a sentence as murder.’ She let the words sink in, watched Kelly-Anne struggle to decide – tell the cop what you know and potentially land someone else in it, or keep quiet and throw herself head first into a pile of shit. Nell knew which she’d choose – shit over a murderer any day – but then the workings of the criminal mind still managed to surprise her.

‘I got a note.’ Kelly-Anne looked at the floor and spoke so quietly Nell wasn’t sure she’d heard right.

‘A note?’

Kelly-Anne nodded.

‘Who from?’

‘I don’t know her,’ she started to say animatedly, ‘it was just a note put through the door after Georgie died. I didn’t see who posted it and you can’t say I did, because I don’t know her.’ She looked at Nell almost triumphantly.

‘Who was it from?’ Nell repeated.

‘I don’t know.’

‘Then why did you mention it when I asked about a woman called Mary?’

Kelly-Anne blinked, opened her mouth to speak, then shut it again.

‘Well?’

Kelly-Anne sighed. ‘It was signed with an “M”. I don’t know if that means Mary, but it made me think of the note when you said the name.’