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whiteboards when Kate entered the office the next day. The night before, she’d taken the picture down and put it away in an upstairs cupboard. Then she’d locked the cupboard door. She’d tried to call Jay, but the call had gone straight to his voicemail, so she’d hung up without leaving a message. Cowardly but… Kate’s train of thought was derailed as Anderton crashed through the door.
    “Morning team, morning team.” He strode up to the whiteboards and pinned up another photograph beside the one of Elodie’s body. This new picture made a cruel contrast: it was a recently taken shot, professionally posed, obviously a school picture. Elodie in the dark blue and silver uniform of Rawlwood College, shoulders held back, pointed chin lifted, blonde crop neatly brushed. She looked younger, somehow, than she had when Kate had met her. Perhaps it was the uniform. Perhaps it was the expression on her face, eyes big and dark, a hint of anxiety in her gaze.
    Anderton seemed to have recovered his mood and was back to his normal ebullient self. The rest of the team took up their usual positions, angled to keep their chief in sight as he paced up and down the room.
    “Elodie Duncan,” said Anderton. “Our victim. Eighteen years old, a pupil at Rawlwood College, daughter of the College’s headmaster.”
    “Stepdaughter,” said Olbeck.
    “Yes, that’s right. Stepdaughter.” He stopped pacing for a moment, clutching his hair with one hand. “Her body was found at 7.06am two days ago by a jogger on the footpath that runs along the river by Arbuthon Green. Cause of death now confirmed as manual strangulation. Kate!” Kate jumped. “Wake up. Anything pertinent from the PM?”
    Kate took a deep breath.
    “She was pregnant. Early stages, about ten weeks.”
    “Aha,” said Anderton. He turned and put a finger out, touching the school picture of Elodie almost tenderly. “That’s interesting. Do her parents know, I wonder?”
    “That’s what we thought,” said Olbeck. Kate hadn’t had a chance to talk to him yet. She looked over at him, noting with irritation mixed with concern that he looked even rougher than he had done the other day. What was the matter with him? He was acting like a teenager. Immediately her thoughts snapped back to Jay, and by association, the painting. You’ve got to do something or stop thinking about it, she told herself. This is how madness starts.
    Anderton was still talking.
    “We’ve spoken to Elodie’s parents. They’re not telling us much at the moment, but it seems our girl’s been moody, difficult, argumentative. Out of control, in her parents’ eyes. Now this may be nothing more than the usual teenage rebellion, but it may not be. I want all her friends interviewed. Let’s see what they can tell us. I’ve already cleared it with her father that we can use a room at the College for as long as we need for interviews. We need to find this ex-boyfriend of hers too.”
    Jerry raised his hand.
    “What about the bloke who found the body?”
    “Yes, indeed. I want to hear his story myself. Told us he thought he saw someone drowning, jumped in to try and save them, pulled out the body. Now he may be telling the truth , or it may be his way of covering up something more sinister. Kate .”
    Kate came back to reality with a start. “What, sir?”
    “Did you have a late night, or something? Wake up. What’s the jogger’s name?”
    Kate groped for a moment and then thankfully her memory returned.
    “His name’s Michael Deedham.”
    “Deedham, right. We need to interview him again. Mark, Kate, come with me after this meeting , and we’ll knock that off to start with.” Anderton reached the wall, turned sharply on his heel and began pacing back the other way. “Right, what else?”
    Kate thought it was time she made a real contribution. “Mark and I will start interviewing her friends. They may know a lot more about Elodie’s life than her parents do.”
    “Good point.”