I woke up under a cloud of confusion. My bed was lumpy, my eyes had opened to see my living room walls, and it was still light.

It took me a moment to remember my vow to have a nap on the sofa. When I did, I sat up and swiped my tabphone from the coffee table, my muscles burning.

The time was 6:38 a.m., Monday.

Shit. No wonder I had a crick in my neck -- I'd been lying on my sofa for twelve hours.

My stomach growled, reminding me that the last thing I'd eaten had been lunch. A slab of chocolate was still on the table, so I ate more than my recommended intake and then sloped into the bathroom. My mind felt rested, but a hot shower did little to relieve my physical aches and pains.

I decided the next answer was coffee, so once I'd dressed, I trudged to Rise & Grinder in the hope that they opened insanely early on a Monday morning. Upon finding that they did, I bought one medicoffee, one double espresso, and a chocolate muffin from Merrick. I'd eaten the muffin long before I reached the ground.

At twenty past seven, I turned down the station road and was surprised to see Alex nearing the end of it. He stopped by the door and waited for his face to be scanned, and I hurried to catch up with him. My timing was perfect. The door had risen halfway when I reached it, so I ducked under without breaking my stride.

And immediately regretted it. Pain shot from my neck to the small of my back, and I cursed loudly.

Alex appeared beside me a moment later, looking bemused. "Good morning. Are you all right?"

I shoved his coffee into his chest. "I might have fallen asleep on the sofa. Don't. Comment."

"I wasn't going to." His lips twitched.

We reached the interactive glass divider between the lobby and the rest of the station, but before we could be scanned, I heard the door rise again behind us. I glanced over my shoulder to see which member of staff was coming in.

Two PRBs arrived, escorting Floppy Hat -- Becky Elwyn. One of them pointed into the lobby, and then they walked away. She tugged on her blonde hair nervously before her gaze landed on us. "Oh, Inspector Rames! You have to help!"

She scurried over, and Alex turned around to see what was happening. By the time Becky reached us, she had our full attention.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Frankie's gone missing!" Her eyes were wide. "She messaged me yesterday afternoon to say that she'd finished giving her statement about everything that happened with Paris, and she was just going to run an errand before she came back to the flat. But she never came back!"

I exchanged a glance with Alex.

"Try to stay calm," I said. "Do you know what the errand was?"

"No! She just said an errand, that's it. She won't respond to any of my messages, and none of my calls are going through. I looked for her yesterday evening all over campus. She's not with any of her classmates, and she wasn't in the cafeteria. I checked that she wasn't with Janet, I checked the city library, I checked Underworld Eclipse, I checked where Paris was found. And I got up really early this morning and checked everywhere again, and she's not anywhere!"

Alex looked at me. "Rise & Grinder?"

"No. Merrick was serving today." I turned back to Becky. "Stay here for a minute while we go in and find a constable. They'll take you down to an interview room and help you file a missing persons report. Alex and I will start looking alone in the meantime."

***

Once we'd sent DC Laney out to Becky and we'd suited up in our spyware, we went to our office. Alex started tracking Frankie's tabphone while I video-called Socrico Train Station.

I had to wait in a long phone queue, but eventually, a familiar train conductor filled the screen. "Oh, Inspector Rames! Good morning."

"Morning, Niko. Can I ask a favour? It's a police matter."

"Ask away," Niko Fowler said.

"Have you sold any tickets to a woman named Frankie Jarsdel in the past twenty-four hours?"

"I'll have a look for you." He picked up another tablet from his desk and checked. "No, we haven't."

"Could you put a forty-eight hour travel ban on her, please? And if she attempts to buy a ticket, we need to be alerted immediately."

"Certainly." He typed again. "All sorted."

"Thank you." Now we knew Frankie was definitely somewhere in Socrico, and that was where she'd stay.

Alex caught my eye as I ended the call. "The tracking's failed."

The optimism I'd just gained turned into dust. "Damn! She must have turned her tabphone off."

"Or worse." His mouth was set in a grim line. "She might not be trying to evade us, Amber."

"I know." I searched for a different Xplora profile on my tabphone. "I'm going to ring around Socrico Hospital and all our walk-in clinics."

I started another video call and stretched my back while I waited for someone to pick up. Alex crossed the room and stood behind me. It was just as well, because the receptionist who answered was a robot.

My sergeant didn't even wait for me to send him The Look. "Socrico Police. Has a patient named Frankie Jarsdel been admitted to your hospital?"

The robot's eyes rolled in its head, and I shuddered. They quickly rolled back. "We have no patient in the hospital by that name. Can I help with anything else?"

"No," Alex said.

I ended the call and tried to stretch my neck out again. "Damn."

"I can help with that." Alex's hands landed on my shoulders.

Thinking he couldn't be serious, I kept my attention focused on my tabphone. "Please do."

His hands slid up to the base of my neck, and he pressed his fingers against my muscles.

I stilled. "What are you doing?"

"Giving you a massage." Amusement crept into his voice.

I found the profile of the nearest walk-in clinic, but I hesitated over making the call. His work was already relieving some of the ache, and it felt good. I closed my eyes. "You need to stop. We'll be getting weird looks when the receptionist picks up."

His fingers moved further down, rubbing my back. I sighed happily, and he laughed under his breath before pulling away.

I cracked open one eye, instantly missing his touch. "You can carry on afterwards, though."

***

My video calls all brought me to the same conclusion: no one had seen Frankie since she'd left the police station yesterday.

I decided it was time to forget massages and venture onto the streets. In fact, I had one street in mind that she might have visited between Becky's checks.

The electro-tape across the mouth of the alley had been cut, the scene already released as if half the force had never been down there. The eyes of the murderous dogs spray-painted across the walls seemed to glint and glow beneath the artificial lamps, warning us not to interfere again.

When we emerged from the alley, the stream at the far end of the courtyard roared. No trace of the divers, the pathologists, or the police had been left behind, and despite the warm air, I shivered.

Alex took my hand as we crossed the damp cobbles, holding on tightly like he could feel the eerie atmosphere. Or maybe he just didn't want me to slip again.

We scanned the ground as we walked. Our eyes weren't as precise as those of the PRBs, but we didn't need any high-tech implants to see that there was nothing to help us. No torn scraps of fibre near the fencing, no rubbish suggesting Frankie had been here for a while, no hair ties or jewellery that had fallen from her wrists.

We came to a standstill beside the stream. I looked into the dark water and tried to imagine the splash as Paris had been pushed in. The jangle of the weights and chains wrapped around him. The stirring of the waters as he'd sunk to the bottom. Then the waves settling down again, keeping the secret beneath their surface.

I pictured Frankie standing there, trying to imagine the same thing.

"Is this closure?" I murmured. "Or is this the final nail in the coffin?"

Alex turned towards me. "What do you mean?"

"Most people who go missing come home again. But if they don't, suicide is more common than murder."

He clenched his jaw, and his gaze drifted beyond me. "Is that a hole in the fence?"

I followed his eyes to the left. Just in front of the stream, the chain links at the bottom had been ripped open. The gap was tall enough and wide enough for a slim teenager to slip through.

"I'm sure that wasn't there when I was younger. It leads directly to the back of Iron Paws, look." I nodded at a similarly drab space on the other side of the fence.

"Why do I have a feeling you're going to crawl through?"

"Well, Frankie doesn't seem like the kind of girl to crawl, but if she did want to get away from someone quickly..." I shrugged and dropped to my knees.

He shook his head in disbelief. "You're not going to fit through that."

"Watch me."

I examined the ragged edges around the hole for a moment, looking for a hair or a snagged thread. Finding nothing, I ducked my head and braced my palms against the soggy ground, squeezing through. The fence raked across my back, and then I was on the other side.

I stayed down for a long moment, scanning the ground behind me. Then I stood up and swept my gaze across the courtyard. "Nothing. We could get the PRBs out, but I don't think..."

The chain links rattled behind me, and Alex grunted. "What?"

I spun back on my heel. What I saw made me grin. "Look, even you can fit through."

Alex was on his hands and knees on my side of the fence. He slowly stood up and gave me a very dark look. Eventually, he turned his gaze on the bins, the yellow skip, and the single promising door.

"I don't think she's been here," I said. "So...our only way out is back under the fence or through Iron Paws."

"We should ask your mother if she's seen Frankie."

"Is that your way of telling me you don't want to crawl back?"

"I'm happy to make it very clear that I don't want to crawl back."

We approached the door together, and I knocked it as hard as I could. When it flew open, my mother was standing on the other side, dressed in scrubs. Her eyebrows rose, and I became aware of the dampness seeping into my legs and the mud stains on my jeans.

"Amber, Alex," she said. "This is a surprise. How on earth did you get back here?"

Alex sighed, and I grinned. "We'd better not talk about it. We'll traumatise him. Do you mind if we, er, pass through?"

"Of course not." She stepped back and let us in, then shut the door behind us. "Is there any particular reason why you were at the back of my surgery, or are you not allowed to talk about that, either?"

My humour faded. "We're looking for a missing person. I don't suppose you've seen a dark-haired teenage girl around here?"

"Not out the back, no." She led us through the corridor.

"Or in the surgery?"

"No. Sorry."

We passed into the waiting room at the front of the building, which was empty. Mom stopped by the door and turned to face us. "I know you two rarely have the time or the energy, but I'd really like us to have a family meal. Alex, if you wanted to come over tonight, I'm making cottage pie."

His expression finally lightened a touch. "Thank you, but I'm actually dining with my parents tonight. I suppose Amber's forgotten to mention that she'll be meeting them."

My mother looked at me sternly. "Yes, she has. To no great surprise. My daughter never tells me anything."

I blushed. "That's not quite true."

"Hmm." She pretended to look unimpressed for a moment longer before breaking into a smile. "Well, good luck. I'm sure you'll have a great time."

"I hope so."

"They'll love you," Alex promised. "They've been desperate to meet you for months."

Oh. I hadn't known that part. Help.

My mother opened the door. "You'll have to tell me how it goes. In the meantime, good luck with the rest of your Trial. I think you're doing great."

"Thanks, Mom," I said as we filed onto the street.

When she'd shut the door behind us, Alex's expression darkened again. "I don't think Frankie's doing great. Where to now?"

I looked at the time on my tabphone. "If we go back to my original fact about missing people being found, Frankie will most likely be walking to Socrico University so that she'll be on time for her morning lectures. Maybe she just went MIA for the night to clear her head after the discovery of Paris' body."

"I hope so," Alex said. "But the more I think about it, the less likely it seems."