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Josiah put the tray down on the table and examined it, without touching. It was now mended, the broken pieces held together by gold lacquer. It didn’t look the same as before, but it was striking and lovely in a different way. “It’s beautiful,” he said, surprised. “How the hell did you do that?”

“It’s an old Japanese art form called kintsugi ,” Alex told him proudly.

“That basically means ‘to repair with gold’ – the idea is that the piece is more beautiful for having been broken. You don’t try to disguise the breaks – you highlight them.

” He gestured at the snaking gold seams around the vase.

“Apparently, some collectors loved the way it looked so much that they deliberately broke things so they could be mended like this.” He laughed.

Josiah whistled as he examined the vase. “It really is exquisite.”

“There’s a whole philosophy attached to kintsugi – it’s about embracing the flawed.” Alex put his arm around Josiah’s back and hugged him. “I’ll admit it’s an idea that hits close to home for me.”

Josiah bent his head and dropped a kiss on his lips. “So – is there a reason why that picture is here?” he asked, pointing at the Halo of Fire .

“Yes, there is,” Alex said. “But let’s eat first.”

He chatted about art, vases, breakfast… anything and everything, keeping up a continuous stream of talk as they ate. Josiah said nothing, sensing once again that he was building up to something important.

When they’d finished their breakfast, Alex pushed back his plate and took a deep breath. He wasn’t nervy, like he’d been last night – instead, he was intensely still, and that was just as unsettling.

“Come on, Alex, you can tell me – whatever it is,” Josiah encouraged softly.

“I know.” Alex nodded rapidly, as if trying to convince himself.

“It’s just… it’s been the most important thing in my life for so long.

I’ve carried it with me for years, and I’ve been so worried about getting it wrong, or choosing the wrong time, or the wrong person.

I know I’ll likely only get one shot at it. ”

“Just tell me,” Josiah said firmly. “I’m ready to hear whatever it is you have to say.”

“Before I start, I want you to know that what happened between us last night was real. I don’t want you to doubt me about that.”

“Okay,” Josiah accepted slowly. “I know that.”

“Good, because I don’t want you to think I’m using you.”

“Alex, is this about my job?” Josiah demanded, automatically switching into investigator mode.

“Yes.” Alex leaned forward and touched his hand. “Joe, you once told me that you didn’t care if a killer was the prime minister or an IS – that your job is to catch them, whoever they are.”

“It is,” Josiah said tightly. He sat back in his chair and stared at Alex’s pale face. “You know something that might lead me to Elliot’s killer, don’t you?” he demanded.

“Yes.” Alex nodded. “I know two specific pieces of information, but I’m not going to tell you them right now.”

“For God’s sake, Alex! How can you still not trust me?” Josiah demanded, banging his hands on the table. “I thought you wanted to bring Elliot’s killer to justice. That’s what you said the other day.”

“I said I wanted to bring a killer to justice,” Alex corrected him. “I didn’t say it was Elliot’s killer.”

Josiah stared at him. “Then who…?”

“This isn’t about Elliot, Joe. It’s never been about Elliot. Not for me. I will help you find Elliot’s killer if I can, but it’ll have to wait. I’m sorry if that sounds like blackmail, but it’s the only leverage I have.”

“Leverage? What do you want?” Josiah asked sharply. “Are you trying to win your freedom – is that what this is about? Because that’s not in my power, Alex. You know that.”

“No.” Alex shook his head firmly. “It has nothing to do with that.”

“Then why do you need leverage?” Josiah asked, puzzled.

“Jeffrey Mead was right – I did ask him those questions about how murder investigations work. He was an investigator, you see, if not a very good one.” Alex made a face. “Still, he was the best I could do at the time.”

Josiah sat back. “You weren’t trying to find out how to cover up a murder – you wanted to find out how to get a murder investigation opened,” he said, slowly piecing together all the different parts of the puzzle.

“Yes.” Alex nodded. “I didn’t care about myself after she was killed. I just knew I had to live long enough to find an incorruptible investigator to take on the case – if such a person existed. I wasn’t sure it would be you, but I’m glad it is, because you’re probably the only one who can do it.”

“She?” Josiah leaned forward. “Who was she, Alex?”

Alex looked down, his shoulders suddenly shaking.

Josiah realised Alex had been holding on to this for so long that he was almost scared to let it go. If anyone could understand that, it was him. “Alex?” He squeezed his hand gently.

Finally, Alex collected himself and looked up again.

“I didn’t want you to go after Tyler for what he did to me – for the prostitution, and the blackmail, and the beatings,” he said softly.

“But I needed to tell you about them so I could find out if you’d stand up to him, and if you’d stand up to your boss and the whole bloody system to bring him down, because I think that’s what it’ll take.

You didn’t let me down, Joe – and I’m sorry, I really am, because I’m asking you to put your career on the line for this, and probably your life, too, but I need you to do your job.

I need you to bring a killer to justice, because she deserves that, and because she’s waited a very long time. ”

“What happened, Alex?” Josiah asked quietly. “You need to tell me everything if you want my help.”

Alex nodded and began speaking rapidly. “You know I escaped, but you don’t know how.

You asked me the other night if I had any friends who’d kill for me, and I told you I don’t – but I did have a friend who was willing to die for me.

She helped me get away, at great risk to herself.

She gave me the nanopad with Elsie’s number in it, and she gave me some cash cards.

I almost made it, but then my father had a stroke, and I couldn’t leave without seeing him one last time.

” He gazed downwards, blinking repeatedly, then looked up again.

“Tyler’s men captured me at the hospital and took me back to his house in Lewes – the one we went to the other day.

Then Tyler whipped me so hard he left those scars on my back that you saw last night. ”

“The fucking bastard.” Josiah half rose out of his chair, but Alex pulled on his arm to make him sit back down.

“That’s not important… but she was there. She was his IS too. She tried to stop him beating me to death, and he lashed out and hit her. She went flying head first into the fireplace and broke her neck.”

Josiah remembered Alex standing by the fireplace at Tyler’s house, staring fixedly at a spot on the carpet. A shiver crept up his spine as he realised that was where it had happened.

“And she died?”

“Yes. He killed her. Tyler killed her, and then he disposed of her body and silenced everyone who was there that night. He got away with it, Joe. He got away with it, because she was just one more expendable IS that nobody gives a fuck about. Elliot Dacre dies and the whole country is up in arms, but she was killed, too, and nobody cared.”

“I care,” Josiah told him firmly. Now Tyler’s determined effort to seduce him the other day made sense. Tyler had been trying to find out what he knew about this poor woman’s death.

“It’s not that I don’t care about Elliot’s murder,” Alex said wearily.

“He was a stupid, harmless old fool who never really hurt anyone and didn’t deserve to die, but he has plenty of people pursuing justice on his behalf.

She only has me. So any help I give you in finding Elliot’s killer will have to wait until I get justice for her first. Those are my terms.”

“I see.” Josiah steepled his fingers together and nodded, slowly.

“And that’s what I’ve carried with me all these years, Joe.

That’s what kept me going, all this time.

” Alex sat back in his chair, looking utterly exhausted.

“I’m sitting here asking you to bring George Tyler to justice for what he did to her.

Then I’ll have done my duty by her, and she can rest in peace, and nothing else matters to me but that.

Will you do it?” he begged anxiously. “I hate to ask you this after last night, but I have to. Will you get justice for her, Joe? Will you?”

“Of course I bloody well will.” Josiah leaned across the table and spoke in a low, hard voice. “Catching killers is what I do, and nothing – nothing – would give me greater pleasure than bringing that bastard to justice. ”

Alex swallowed hard, and then managed a faint smile. “Thank you,” he said. “You don’t know what this means to me.”

“Yeah – I think I do,” Josiah replied softly. “I’ll take on the case, Alex, and I will nail George Tyler. I promise you that. Now tell me… who was she?”

Alex picked up the Halo of Fire picture and opened up its back with trembling fingers.

“I’m an IS, and I’m not allowed to own anything, as you know.

I’ve kept it hidden, so nobody would see it, but I also had to make sure it was nearby.

I had to remind myself that the reason I’m still alive, the reason I didn’t kill myself years ago, the reason I’ve kept going for all this time… is to get justice for her.”

Underneath the hard cardboard spine of the photo frame was a folded-up square of paper.

Alex smoothed it out with his fingers and handed it to Josiah.

On it was a photo of a beautiful woman in her early twenties.

She had soft brown skin, pretty brown eyes, and striking curly hair that hung like a cloud around her lovely face.

She was wearing an oversized white tee-shirt, and there was a wistful, faraway expression in her eyes.

“Her name was Solange Alajika,” Alex said, his voice breaking. “And she was my friend.”