‘So far, we have a dead guy and a missing woman who would rather risk her life and her health than tell us what’s going on. My guess is this guy we are going to see now is going to be equally unhelpful. We just need to figure out why.’

Chapter Twenty-One

The summer temperatures were starting to kick in after another unpredictable cold spell and Dorset was a real suntrap. Leon Quick lived further away from the coast than Simon Glover, in a studio flat above the garage of his parents’ converted barn house. It was hot and stuffy inside and you could hear the clatter and clink of Leon’s father tinkering with something in the garage below.

The flat itself consisted of a bed and an armchair, plus a small side table and a TV, with built-in cupboards either side of the dated tiled fireplace. In one corner were three kitchen units with a microwave and a kettle. He also had a small fridge. There was nowhere to sit, really, so Imogen just folded her arms and waited for him to speak.

Leon looked shaken when his mother showed them upstairs and introduced them as police. Mrs Quick had given Leon a scathing look as she went back downstairs.

‘Leon Quick? I’m Detective Miles and this is my colleague, DS Grey. We are here to speak to you about your friend, Simon Glover.’

‘Is he OK? Did you find him?’ Leon said.

Imogen noted he was tense, his eyes darting around nervously as he spoke.

‘You knew he was missing?’ Imogen said.

‘Fiona called me and I’ve been calling him. He hasn’t been at work and everyone’s really concerned about him. I told the boss he had flu, but I knew something was up.’

‘What do you mean, you knew something was up?’ Imogen probed.

There was a twitchiness about Leon – she wondered if he was an addict of some kind.

‘He had been acting weird the last few weeks; he had a week off and when he didn’t come back I suspected something.’

‘Why would you suspect something? Was he in some kind of trouble?’ Adrian asked.

Leon’s anxiety had spiked when they had turned up and Imogen noticed it growing by the second. He started to chew on the skin around his thumb.

‘Just tell me what happened to him. He’s dead, isn’t he?’ he said.

Imogen could see he was shaking. Was it nerves or maybe withdrawal? For some reason, she suspected the former. Why was he so uneasy?

‘Why would you think that?’ Adrian said.

‘Why else would you be here?’

Imogen took a deep breath before speaking. ‘His sister has positively identified a body we recovered from the River Exe as Simon Glover.’

Leon shook his head and exhaled deeply before sitting on the edge of his bed. ‘What did they do to him?’