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He'd checked it last around midnight. She'd been safely back at home. He was surprised now to see that the car was moving, the tiny blob making its way along the main road towards the centre of town.

He frowned. It looked as if the car had only recently left the house, probably just a few minutes before. What would have caused her to travel back into town at that time of the night?

For a moment, he was tempted to forget about it. But he couldn't, for the moment, think of any straightforward reason why she might be out and about at this time of the night. From what he'd seen and knew, she hadn't struck him as a night bird. She might have left something behind at the office, but he couldn't imagine what might be so important or essential that it would drag her out of the house in the smallest hours of the morning.

After a few seconds, he made up his mind. Yawning, he grabbed his coat from where he'd flung it on the sofa, pulled it round his shoulders and picked up his car keys from the table.

It might be well be nothing, this nocturnal trip. But it might be something. And if it was something, then he ought to know.

She could see a haze of blue lights and smoke between the buildings ahead. She turned off the main road into the business park. Further ahead, there was an array of fire engines and police cars, dark silhouettes standing or running between the vehicles, thick billows of noxious-looking fumes and, through the broken windows of the office building, a glare of flames. Jesus, it looked bad.

She slowed her car, knowing the police would prevent her drawing too close to the burning building. She saw Lizzie's aged Mini parked by the access road and parked behind it. Lizzie was standing a few yards ahead, outside the line of emergency vehicles, staring at the building. Marie left her car and approached the younger woman. ‘Lizzie. You okay?'

Lizzie looked over her shoulder. Her face was drawn and exhausted, her eyes red. Her expression suggested that Marie was the person she'd most wanted to see in the world. After Andy McGrath anyway, Marie thought.

‘Any word from Andy?' Marie knew there was no way of avoiding the question.

Lizzie shook her head. ‘I keep trying his mobile, but it's still off, and his home phone just keeps ringing out. I've called the owners – their guy's over there with the police – but they've heard nothing either.'

‘They'll track him down, Lizzie. Don't worry,' Marie said, trying to convey more confidence than she felt.

‘I keep telling myself that,' Lizzie said. ‘It's not like he's Mr Domestic. He's always out on the tiles.' She looked a little calmer, as if Marie had provided the reassurance she'd been trying to conjure up for herself.

Marie laughed. ‘Maybe he got lucky.'

‘Yeah, maybe.' Lizzie smiled for the first time. ‘Wouldn't be for lack of trying, anyway.'

Marie registered a figure looming out of the darkness towards them. One of the police officers.

‘You two ladies okay?' he said, in a tone that clearly implied: ‘And what the hell are you doing here?'

‘A bit in shock, actually,' Marie said. ‘We both work in the building. My colleague here was called out because the landlords weren't able to track down our boss.'

The policeman hesitated. ‘Where do you work, exactly?'

Marie pointed towards the block still on fire. ‘In that building. We've got the ground floor.'

The policeman glanced behind him. ‘Bad news, then, I'm afraid. That area's pretty much gutted. They've got the fire under control now, but it's done a hell of a lot of damage.'

Marie thought about the paperwork she'd spent the day sorting. One way of dealing with McGrath's backlog, she thought. She was glad now that she'd removed the few documents that might have some evidential value.

‘Can I take you two ladies' names and addresses?' the police-man added. ‘We'll need to talk to you. And to your boss.'

‘Why us?' she asked. The answer was obvious, but she was keen to find out how the police were viewing the fire.

‘Just routine. Obviously, we need to investigate any incident of this kind.'

‘You think it might not be an accident?'

‘We can't rule anything out.'

‘No, I suppose not.' It had already occurred to Marie that, unless she revealed her true role, her own presence was suspicious. First day in the new job, and the office gets burned to the ground. Any half-decent copper would at least want to investigate the coincidence. She'd leave that one to Salter. It wasn't her job to break cover.

The two women dutifully gave their names and addresses, and Lizzie added McGrath's details. ‘You've no news of Mr McGrath?' the policeman asked, as he noted down the information.

‘I've been trying to track him down ever since they called me,' Lizzie said.

‘Lizzie knows him better than I do,' Marie said. ‘But apparently it's not entirely unknown for him not to come home after a night out. If you know what I mean.'

The policeman glanced at the building. ‘Hope he's had a good time. He'll need something to cheer himself up once he finds out about this lot.'

There was a shout from another police officer running towards them. He stopped short as he caught sight of the two women. ‘Geoff,' he said, finally. ‘You're wanted. Developments.'

The first policeman nodded to Marie and Lizzie. ‘Okay, ladies. Can I suggest you get yourselves back home now? There's nothing you can do here and, well, it's never helpful to have civilians cluttering up the scene.'

‘No, of course not.' Marie was looking past him at the second policeman, trying to read his expression in the darkness. Developments. ‘If we track down Andy – Mr McGrath – we'll get him to call the landlords, shall we?'

‘Please.' The policeman was already turning away from them to join his colleague. ‘Goodnight, now, ladies.'

Marie turned to Lizzie. ‘I think we should try to get some sleep. There's nothing we can do here. Andy'll turn up in the morning.'

‘Don't reckon I'll get much sleep.'

‘There's a lot to think about. But no point in worrying until we know what the damage is. I presume Andy will have insurance?'

‘You never know with Andy. He's not the most organised person.'

‘I'll give you a call in the morning, see if there's any word from him. Then we can decide what to do next.' She gently led Lizzie back towards her car. ‘You get off. I'll see if there's any chance of getting a word with the landlord's rep over there. See if he knows what the damage is likely to be.'

‘Okay,' Lizzie said, doubtfully. She climbed into the car, started the engine and wound down the window. ‘I'll keep trying Andy's number. In case he turns it on.'

‘He'll be asleep, I should think. Wherever he is. But there's no harm in trying.'

She watched as Lizzie headed off towards the main road. Then she made her way towards the line of emergency vehicles, moving as silently and unobtrusively as she could.

There was a row of trees lining the car park. She moved forward, keeping in the shadow of the trees, drawing as close as she could to the knot of figures clustered around the building. She strained her ears to try to catch something of the discussion taking place between the police and fire officers.

‘…asphyxiation, as far as we can tell. The fire had scarcely touched that room apart from scorching round the door. My guess is he was in there, working or something, and then he heard the noise of the fire. Opened the office door and was met with a wall of flames.' The speaker, who seemed to be one of the fire officers, paused while someone said something Marie couldn't hear. ‘Must have done the smart thing and shut the door again. Probably tried to get out through the window.'

‘So why didn't he?' another voice asked. ‘It's a ground floor room.'

‘Christ knows. Maybe the smoke got to him quicker than he expected. Sometimes you don't notice it till it's too late. Maybe he thought he had more time than he did. Maybe couldn't get the window open. That's for you lot to try to sort out. All I know is we've got a body. Poor bugger.'

There was a jumble of other voices, then the fire officer spoke again. ‘It's under control now. We'll have it out before long. But no one goes into the building until the structural engineer's had a look. Damage doesn't look too severe, but you never know.' There was another buzz of voices before the fire officer continued. ‘Yeah, I understand all that. We'll get you in as quickly as we can. But I've got a duty to make sure nobody takes unnecessary risks. All I can tell you is that the body's male. Fortyish, probably. Dressed in a suit. I didn't stay long enough to see much more.'

Marie slipped away and managed to reach her car without anyone detecting her presence. Seated behind the wheel, she prepared to pull away from the swirl of blue lights and smoke.

A body. Fortyish. Dressed in a suit.

She had little doubt that it would be Andy McGrath.

One hell of a coincidence.

‘Jesus, sis. What time do you call this?'

She glanced across at the alarm clock. ‘Four thirty-seven,' she said. ‘Thought you were an early riser, Hugh?'

‘Not this bloody early,' he groaned. ‘I hope this is important.'

‘Might be,' she said. ‘You tell me.'

‘Hang on.' She heard a clatter as he put down the phone, then an indecipherable jumble of background noise. Christ knew what he was up to. ‘Okay sis,' he said, finally. ‘All ears.'

‘There's been a fire tonight. At McGrath's place.'

There was a pause. She knew that Salter was already trying to work out the angles and decide how to play it. ‘How serious?'

‘I don't know exactly but pretty serious. And there's more.' She briefly recounted her suspicions about the body found in the office building.

‘You don't know for sure it's McGrath?'

‘I know what I'm telling you, Hugh. But who else is it likely to be?'

‘Christ knows. I'll make a few discreet calls in the morning. See what I can find out.'

‘Bloody big coincidence, don't you think? I start working with McGrath, and immediately somebody comes along and tops him.'

Another pause, almost imperceptible this time. ‘Even if you're right about it being McGrath, sis, we don't know that someone's topped him. Might have been an accident. Might have torched the place himself and ballsed up his own exit.'

‘Still a bloody big coincidence.'

‘Shit happens. Don't start jumping to conclusions until we know what's what.'

‘So what about me, Hugh? You're going to let the local cops know who I am?'

‘We don't need to make a decision on that yet. Don't want to break your cover unless we need to.'

‘Why not? The job's finished anyway. If McGrath's dead, there's no reason for me to stay.'

‘We don't even know that he is. I want to find out what's going on first. And even if McGrath's out of the picture, there may still be ways we can use you up there. Now we've got the legend established, I mean.'

‘Christ, Hugh. With respect, that's ridiculous. I wasn't comfortable with how we rushed into the assignment in the first place. We can't just use me somewhere else to save a few pennies in your budget.'

‘You don't have the full picture, sis. I need to think it through. Leave it with me.'

As if I've any fucking choice, she thought. ‘And what if the police see me as a suspect? I work for McGrath for one day and his offices get torched. Aren't they going to think that's a bit of a coincidence as well?'

‘There's nothing to link you to the fire. Even if they think it's dodgy, there's no case.'

‘And if they start delving into the mysterious Maggie Yates? Surely the cover won't stand up to a proper investigation?'

‘Local plods,' Salter said. ‘Couldn't find a haystack in a pile of needles. Look, I know you think we rushed into this one, sis, but we did a kosher job. It'll hold together if we need it to.'

‘But surely we should just tell them, Hugh. The cops won't be overjoyed when they find out we've been holding out on them.'

‘
If
they find out. And if we do decide not to tell them. Look, sis, this isn't entirely my decision. I need to run it up the line and see what the bigwigs say.'

That made sense. For all his maverick inclinations, Salter was smart enough to make sure his backside was covered. ‘So what do I do in the meantime?'

‘Just carry on, sis.'

‘Like any new starter would do if their office burnt to the ground with the boss inside? Start looking for another bloody job.'

‘Just bear with me. I'll find out what the word is on McGrath. And then decide how to play things.'

‘What if the police want to talk to me?'

‘Just go with it. After all, there's not much you can tell them.'

It was Marie's turn to pause, allowing herself to take several deep breaths before responding. ‘There's a hell of a lot I
could
tell them, Hugh. But I'll let it run, if that's the official line.'

‘That's the line. But I'll sort it.'

‘Just sort it quickly, okay?'

But Salter had already ended the call. Marie sat for a moment, reflecting on the conversation. There had been something in Salter's response that left her feeling uneasy. It was as if her news had genuinely taken him by surprise. As if it had somehow disrupted his plans.

All she could do was wait. Wait for the news on McGrath. Wait for whatever Salter's decision might turn out to be.

She lay back on the bed, still fully clothed, staring up at the ceiling. Waiting for daylight.

She'd expected to lie awake till morning, but at some point she drifted off to sleep. She woke to the sound of her mobile phone buzzing on the bedside table.