“He doesn’t. But when it happens, and he sees her walking towards him, he seizes his opportunity. Maybe he can’t believe his luck. We don’t know what was in his mind, what he was hoping for, or expecting to happen. The thing is, Gerry, I’m saying that it was most likely someone she knew who killed her. Someone who wanted her dead for a reason. It wasn’t a random sex-killer attack.”

“We don’t know that whoever was in the second vehicle didn’t rape her, too.”

“According to Mandy Ketteridge, it didn’t stop that long, but she heard raised voices, more like an argument than a sex attack.”

“Is she in any danger?”

“Who?”

“Mandy Ketteridge. Remember, she asked about it, seemed worried?”

“I shouldn’t think so,” said Annie. “Nobody but us knows what she saw and heard.”

“But if they did know, or suspected? They might have seen her light on. It’s a loose end. We don’t know who or what we’re dealing with, how far they’d go.”

“Now you’re making me paranoid. We’ll have the patrols pay extra attention. I still don’t think she’s in any danger, but it wouldn’t do any harm to keep a close eye on the place.”

Gerry thought for a moment, swirling the brandy in her glass. “Let’s say you’re right about the killer knowing the victim,” she said. “How does that help us?”

“If it was someone she knew, then perhaps there was a motive. If there was a motive, once we know who she was, it gives us a better chance of finding out who had it.”

“What motive? So she couldn’t report the rape?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she knew too much about something?”

“Or she was in thrall to someone, a pimp, whatever, and disobeyed orders, was made an example of,” said Gerry. “Or it was family, an honor killing, something like that?”

“As far as I can tell, she wasn’t Middle Eastern.”

“There’s other kinds of honor killings,” said Gerry. “Funny term, really. There’s no honor in it at all, is there?”

“Come on,” said Annie. “Enough of this. We’d better get back to the station and see if there are any developments.”

Gerry knocked back the remainder of her brandy and pulled a face. She teetered a little when she stood up to leave. “You’d better not be drunk,” said Annie. “Not on one double brandy. Or you might pass your exams, young lady, but you’ll never make it as a DS.”

AT THE same time as Annie was soothing Gerry with brandy, Banks had been as good as his word and bought Winsome a small whisky and soda in Whitby, sticking to Diet Coke himself. After that he had driven them across the moors to York while Winsome dozed for an hour in the passenger seat. Even the Alabama Shakes didn’t keep her awake. Nor did she hear the Rolling Stones doing “Stray Cat Blues” from their 1971 show at the University of Leeds. Banks hadn’t realized it was on the playlist, and he felt uncomfortable when Jagger started singing about a thirteen-year-old girl. It reminded him that those days had, indeed, been different, though Jerry Lee Lewis had been hounded out of the country for marrying his thirteen-year-old cousin.