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JIM
Sometimes on a case you get a bit of information that feels electric, like static under the skin,
especially when it’s very unexpected.
I was awake before 6 am, feeling bruised from my dream at first, because it had lingered with me
into the morning, and got mixed up with the tiredness I felt, and the disappointment that we weren’t
making as much progress as we’d have liked.
But that didn’t last long, because I checked my phone and saw an email that had just arrived very
late the night before from one of the blokes we had digging up background on people.
It was a new bit of information, and it changed what we knew about somebody close to Benedict,
and to be sure that I acted on it properly, I knew I had to damp down my feeling of excitement and
follow procedure. I had to make sure I did things right.
So in order to do that, I had four conversations before I paid a visit to Rachel Jenner’s house that
morning.
6.15 am: FRASER
I paced around my bedroom, waiting for her to answer. She picked up quickly.
‘Jim,’ she said. ‘I’m hoping there’s a good reason for this. You do know I bite the heads off orphans
before I’ve had my first coffee?’
‘Nicola Forbes,’ I said.
‘What of her?’
‘She hasn’t been entirely honest with us. Understatement.’
I gave her a synopsis.
‘OK, you’ve got me interested. I’ll see you in my office in an hour.’
‘If you don’t mind, boss, I’ll go and talk to John Finch first.’
‘Do you think you should talk to Rachel Jenner first?
‘My feeling is that she doesn’t know about this.’
‘OK. Keep me posted.’
6.45 am: EMMA
I was up and dressed by now, one espresso down, and the Bialetti foaming on the hob again
already, because although I was more fired up than I had been for days I’ll admit I was feeling my
lack of sleep just a touch, and I needed to drive that feeling back, so I could stay on the ball
completely.
Emma was on the sofa and groggy as hell, her forehead all scrunched up as she tried to fight her
way back to consciousness from a deep sleep. I knelt down beside her, whispered that I’d made her a
cup of coffee, and held it near her face so she could smell it. When she’d managed to open her eyes, I
filled her in on what I’d learned. That woke her up properly, like a shot of adrenalin straight into the
arm.
7 am: Ex-DI TALBOT
Ex-DI Talbot was the man who’d sent me the information. Officially, he was retired, but now and
then he came in to work on cases as a civilian when extra bodies were needed. We always wanted
him on a case because he was a proper bloodhound. He’d been digging into background on the