Page 76 of Three for a Girl

“Don’t you worry, the killer’s still out there forusto catch.”

“Good,” Chad whispered as he scratched his throat.

“What’s with that?” Ally asked.

“What?”

She stabbed her fork in the direction of Chad’s neck.

“Allergic reaction.”

“To what?”

He blinked. “Prawns, there were some in a ready meal, I didn’t read the ingredients.”

“You idiot. Still, I think you should get it checked out.”

“I did.”

Ally raised her eyebrows. “Yeah?”

“The doctor said it was fine, would go down in a few days.”

“Good. It’s starting to look more and more like you’ve been strangled.”

He snorted, and scooped up a fork full of green potato. “Strangled no, poisoned, probably.”

Ally winked. “No probably about it.”

Chapter Eleven

Even with the air conditioner going fall blast, the incident room sweltered like a desert. They shed their jackets like the world’s most miserable strip show.

Chad peered out the window, watching everyone around the station with unwavering focus. Romeo had lingered outside the hospital when he was ill, there was a chance he’d do the same again.

“What’s out there?” Josh asked.

Chad didn’t turn to him. “Nothing but the ball of fire in the sky.”

“They think the heatwave’s going to break soon.”

“I hope so.”

Chad pulled his gaze away from the window to the four new photos on the screen.

Missing people with a common link.

Ellen Blakely.

Gary Vulux, Sophia Price, Toni Clay, and Josh’s latest finding, Jools Hooper.

They were all young, but where Gary posed it up on his profile, Jools had near enough been invisible, a ghost hidden behind a rose profile picture and a fake name. Chad doubted her parents knew about the account, and if they did, they wouldn’t have had a suspicion about Ellen.

Ellen was the sweet influencer after all.

When she wasn’t flouting hers and Kerion’s life and possessions, she posted memes about loving yourself and being kind to others. She even put links to charities where she had supposedly donated money.

She hadn’t given away any of her fortune, the DI had checked.

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