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Ashleigh was wearing when she went out?”
    â€œYes, sir. Apart from what she was wearing when she was knocked down, her mother says she had a dark green coat with a hood. She also had a bag – Indian design. We didn’t find either of them at the scene.”
    â€œRight. Thanks,” DS Woods said. He turned to Stafford. “How certain are they that she was sexually assaulted?”
    â€œHer knickers are missing, there are scratches on her thighs… Pretty sure. The mother’s given her consent for a rape exam, so…”
    Woods sniffed and thought about it. “It’d only take her about five minutes to walk from Escott Road to here if she came through the estate, so that leaves about twenty minutes unaccounted for. Also means we’re looking at the estate as a possible location. That’s going to be fun in the dark.”
    Â â€œSir?” Holly said.
    The two sergeants looked at her. Holly hesitated, then said: “When Ashleigh was in the ambulance I noticed she didn’t have any shoes. And her feet were dirty. I mean, they were really dirty – like she’d walked or run quite a way without anything on them.”
    â€œAny shoes recovered on the road?” Woods asked Stafford.
    Stafford shook his head. “No.”
    â€œOkay,” Woods said to Holly. “I’ll keep it in mind. Thanks.” He turned back to Stafford. “How many bodies have we got?”
    â€œJust who’s here, including the TPOs,” Stafford said. “They’re supposed to be going off but I can assign them for a couple more hours.”
    â€œOkay,” Woods said. “If you can look after the search, I’ll go and see this friend of Ashleigh’s, find out what she knows – okay if I take Miss Blades in case the girl’s on her own?”
    â€œYou all right with that?” Stafford asked Holly. “Any reason you need to get back to the Section House?”
    â€œNo, Sarge, I’m fine,” Holly said, trying not to sound too pleased at the assignment.
    â€œOkay, I’ll entrust you to DS Woods’s tender mercies. Know what I’m going to say next?”
    Holly nodded. “Gob and ears, Sarge.”
    â€œRight.”

11.
    BOOTH RESIDENCE
ESCOTT ROAD
20:43 HRS
    â€œCan you remember what time Ashleigh left here?” DS Woods asked.
    On the sofa Lauren Booth sat with her hands wedged between her thighs, as if she didn’t trust them not to shake if she removed them. She still seemed to be in shock from the news about Ashleigh and her mother had put a comforting arm round her shoulder.
    â€œJust after six,” Lauren said dully. “We’d been watching telly.”
    Holly saw Woods frown. He looked to Lauren’s father. “Is that what you remember? Six o’clock?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Mr Booth said. He was about forty, and was standing by the fireplace. “I went out about ten to six. She was still here when I left.”
    â€œIt
was
about six,” Mrs Booth said. “I asked her if she wanted to stay for tea but she said no.”
    â€œOkay.” Woods made a note, then looked back at her daughter. “Lauren, do you know if Ashleigh was intending to meet anyone on her way home?”
    Lauren shook her head. “She was just going home.”
    But there was something about the way she said it – just the faint hint of a hesitation before she spoke – that struck Holly as not quite right. She glanced at Woods and when he met her eye – just for a second – she knew he’d picked up on it, too.
    â€œShe didn’t say she’d be stopping off anywhere?” Woods asked Lauren without missing a beat.
    Lauren shook her head. “No.”
    â€œWhy’s that matter anyway?” Lauren’s father said then. “I mean, if she was knocked down…”
    â€œWe think there might be a bit more to it than that,” Woods said.