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At the station, Lottie dumped her coat on the back of a chair and sat at an empty desk in the general office. She looked at the photo that Shane Santos had taken. Studying the young woman with her long wavy hair, she mourned the life so brutally snatched away. She thought of a family waking up this morning to find she hadn’t come home, of the turmoil Lottie would visit on them with the news, and then the ensuing public scrutiny of the woman’s life. These thoughts caused her chest to tighten.

Boyd joined her and sat on the edge of the desk. He put a Bean Café coffee by her hand.

‘Hey! Welcome back, Boyd. You’re a lifesaver.’

‘My middle name. Good to be back.’

She sipped the coffee, grateful for the sugar he’d put in it, and turned the phone towards him. ‘Know her?’

‘The body found this morning? No, I don’t.’

She stood and made her way to her office. ‘Check if any calls came in about missing persons.’

‘Your coat.’ Boyd passed it to her and followed her inside, where he grabbed her hand, pulling her close. He smelled good and his face was relaxed. ‘You need to take it easier, Lottie. You’re killing yourself.’

‘And someone killed that poor woman. I have to do my job.’

‘Pace yourself, then. Don’t go twenty-four-seven like you usually do on a big investigation. I’m serious.’ She smiled, and he seemed to grab onto that. ‘Hey, how about dinner tonight? On me. We need some alone time and you need some down time.’

They were still engaged and had almost succeeded in getting married not that long ago, but fate had intervened and they had begun to drift, through no fault of Lottie’s.

‘What about Sergio?’

‘Grace arrived. His favourite auntie.’

‘His only auntie.’ Lottie smiled. ‘When is he going to school?’

‘After the February mid-term. A few weeks yet.’

‘How are you all coping in your small apartment?’

‘It’s a nightmare. I’m house-hunting.’

‘I was thinking the same thing this morning.’

‘Thought you were thinking of getting a loan to renovate Farranstown House?’

‘Renovate? It needs to be gutted. Anyhow, I don’t own it, Leo does, so I’m not going down that road.’

‘We discussed this before, and I firmly believe we should get a house together. Pool resources. There’s this show home on a new estate, Pine Grove, that we should look at and?—’

‘Missing persons, Boyd?’ She tapped the keyboard to awaken her computer.

‘On it. And I’ll ring the estate agent about that house too.’ He winked as he left, and Lottie felt warmth tingling in her stomach.

She set about organising a murder team. With limited resources, that was her first major job of the morning. When Kirby bustled into her office, she hoped he had good news.

‘She had a bank card on her,’ he panted. ‘I contacted the bank. Got an address and a photo emailed over. It’s her.’

‘Good work. Any family?’

‘Yes.’

‘What about CCTV?’

‘Some of the businesses had cameras but I doubt they’ll be of any use. As far as I could see, there was nothing trained towards where the body was found.’

‘Once door-to-doors are organised, gather whatever footage is out there. McKeown can trawl through it. The super will be on my back, so I need everyone on this. I’ll get Boyd to come with me to break the bad news to this poor girl’s family.’

She knew Kirby was disappointed at being left behind, but Boyd was the more senior detective. Plus she wanted to spend time with him.