Socrico University was coming to life when we arrived. Students hurried between the old buildings, their shorts pulled low, silk skirts swishing, and sunglasses tucked into v-neck tees. Most of them were clutching coffees -- the weird, iced kind.

I stopped one student and asked where Reception was. She pointed it out to us, and we went off to discover which lecture Frankie was scheduled to be in. When we had it, we tried to find it.

We eventually discovered the room at the heart of campus, on the ground floor of a building that looked like a church. Alex wrenched the lecture hall door open and went straight inside. I followed him.

Only a handful of students had arrived, and all of them twisted around to look at us. One was Jude Bray, sitting a few rows back from the front.

He sprung to his feet and came over when he saw us. It took a minute, because the room seemed large enough to hold a few hundred people.

He started talking when he was a few rows away. "Becky called and said that Frankie's gone missing. Is it true?"

All heads turned to us again. None of them were Frankie.

I pushed the door back open. "Why don't we chat outside?"

The three of us entered the hallway, Jude still talking. "You have to find her! Please."

"Can you think of anywhere she might be?" Alex asked.

Jude shook his head. "She always turns up to her lectures early, and she's never skipped. She should be here right now."

"But if she was going to skip," I said, "do you have any idea at all where she would go?"

"I don't think so."

"When did you last see her?"

"Saturday. We went into the city for the morning." He glanced down, then met my eyes again. "You saw us on our way out."

"When did you last have virtual contact with her?"

"Same day. I wanted to send her a message about Paris yesterday, but I didn't know what to say. So I thought I'd just talk to her about it this morning..." He pulled at the neck of his jumper.

"By the way," Alex said, "where were you on Thursday night, between seven and nine?"

Jude looked away. "At a friend's party. I can't remember exactly what time I got there or anything. Sorry."

I tucked my hands into my jeans pockets. "Does this friend have a --"

A gaggle of students pushed past us and entered the lecture theatre, and Jude's gaze moved over my shoulder. "My lecturer's here. You have my Xplora details now."

He pulled away, following the students inside. A much older man passed us and entered behind them, and then the door finally swung shut and stayed that way.

I started walking. "Right, let's go to the labs. If no one can tell us anything there, we'll oversee the search teams from the station. We need to get them doing flat to flat enquiries on this road, Flicker Street, and around by Iron Paws."

"We're not going to find her." Alex grabbed a swinging door in the middle of the hallway before it closed. As I passed under his arm, he looked at me. "I had this feeling when Lola went missing. I knew she wasn't alive."

"It's just fear," I said firmly. "Unless you're claiming to be an oracle, in which case I'd call you a liar."

A hint of a smile touched his mouth. "You don't believe in spiritual stuff? Fate and foresight?"

"Who does anymore?" I shot him a sidelong look. "Don't tell me you do."

"No." His smile vanished. "But I do believe in gut instincts."

***

We found Socrico University Research again and ascended to the first floor. Becky Elwyn was standing beside the entrance to Lab S, her back flat against the wall as she peered in.

She turned her head as we clanked to the top of the stairs, then drew away, her face red. "Um, hi."

"Shouldn't you be in morning lectures?" I asked.

"My first lecture is this afternoon, so I thought I'd carry on looking for Frankie. I know you're doing it now and you're better equipped and stuff, but I can't just sit around." She turned towards Lab S. "I thought Frankie might have come here to look at the crime scene if she was thinking about Lonn and Paris. But the tape's still across the door at the other end of the room."

"Yes," I said. "And there should be a PRB standing guard. It wouldn't have let her in." Hopefully.

"I know." Becky sighed. "Inspector, can I tell you something silly? I don't think it can really help, but I don't want to keep it to myself, either."

"Nothing would be silly. If you want us to find Frankie, you need to tell us everything you know."

"Okay." She took a deep breath. "I forgot about it when I was filling in the report, but I called Jude while I was walking back to ask if he'd seen her, and it reminded me. For a while, I thought Frankie and Jude had met here, in class. But they knew each other before that -- they went to the same secondary school and college. Jude was Paris' best friend."

Interest sparked. "She didn't tell us that. You think that has something to do with why she's gone missing?"

"It can't." Becky laughed uncertainly and looked down, linking her hands together. "I mean...I don't think so. Jude wouldn't hurt her. He's...he's in love with her."

"She thought Paris loved her, Becky," Alex said quietly. "But he hurt her. So tell us what's happened."

Colour crept up her neck and burned her cheeks, and she kept her eyes fixed on the ground. "I only met Frankie this year. I didn't know that Jude liked her at first. He says he's been in love with her forever, but...everyone has a little crush on her." She glanced up, then away again. "I kissed her in Underground Eclipse on the Friday night before last, and Jude went ballistic. I thought he was going to hit me. We'd all just had a bit too much to drink, though."

"Did he do anything to Frankie?" I asked.

"I don't know. We went our separate ways. She was really distant with me until this Saturday, and I didn't talk to Jude until Frankie gathered us together again and we tried to fill in the cracks." Becky sighed. "Even though he's long gone, all Frankie can think of is Paris. She doesn't want Jude or me as more than friends."

Alex frowned. "Did Jude hit you that night?"

Becky closed her eyes and swallowed hard. "No. But he did raise his fist to do it. I know he could have, and it makes me worried for her. And when I think about Paris, too...she attracts a rough crowd."

"You don't say," I murmured. "Alex, we'll have a quick look in the lab, and then we'll pull Jude out of his lecture and talk to him ag--"

"What's going on out here?"

We all jumped and turned back to Lab S. Nora Fitzroy, the new head researcher, was standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips. She straightened when her gaze landed on Alex and me. "Oh. Can I help you?"

Alex lowered his voice. "Becky, go back to your dorm and stay out of trouble."

We strode towards the lab.

"We came to have another look at the crime scene," I lied. "We won't be long. We're just after some inspiration."

"Are you still not getting anywhere?" Nora stepped back so that we could enter. "I heard you recovered the body of Paris Abel yesterday. Is it true what the articles on Xplora have been saying? Was Lonn somehow...? No, he can't have been."

Anger flared as I swept my gaze around the room. No statement had been made that even hinted at a connection between Lonn and Paris yet. Some journalist had been sticking their nose in far too deep -- it didn't take three guesses to work out who.

But I never got to reply to Nora. As my gaze landed on Riannon Sotello, present and correct at her workstation, my tabphone and earpiece rang simultaneously. I tapped the device in my ear. "Rames speaking."

"Amber, this is Dixon. I have bad news."

My stomach dropped. "Please don't say what I think you're going to."

"We've just had a call from a lift maintenance team working at a building on Flicker Street. They've found the body of a girl matching Frankie Jarsdel's description at the bottom of the lift shaft."

***

The lift shaft was small. There was only enough room for the two of us, Cassia, and the body.

Frankie Jarsdel was sprawled on her side, her head twisted and her dark hair flung across her mouth. Hundreds of papers were scattered across the floor, and a lever arch folder was lying by her outstretched, stiff left hand.

Cassia was crouched beside her in a forensic suit. She looked up when we arrived, sympathy in her gaze. "I'm sorry."

Alex looked at the victim with shadowed eyes. "This shouldn't have happened."

"There's nothing you could have done. She died long before you knew she was missing -- between five and seven yesterday evening."

"Cause of death?" I asked.

"Probably her broken neck, but I can't say for sure yet. There are so many things an impact like this could have ruptured."

"Can you tell how she got down here?"

"You mean whether she jumped or whether she was pushed?" Cassia shook her head. "No. Is there CCTV in the corridors?"

"Nope." I looked at Frankie again, her face locked in a spasm of pain. My gaze drifted to the purple folder at her side and the river of papers we were standing in. "What's all this?"

"I'm the pathologist, not a PRB."

"Don't tell me you haven't been nosy."

She picked up the nearest paper and stood, offering it to me. "It's what you think it is."

Lab S, FFI was the title. I skimmed over equations and annotations I could make no sense of until I reached a promising word at the bottom. Cure.

I frowned. "What's Frankie doing with Lonn's missing work?"

"Where's her tabphone?" Alex asked abruptly.

Cassia delved into the pockets of Frankie's jeans. She pulled out a slim glass device, smashed beyond repair.

One clue gained, one clue destroyed.

"We need to look for a suicide note in these papers," I said.

Alex's jaw tightened. "I don't think this is suicide."

"We don't have the evidence to rule it out. Frankie could have opened the doors of a lift that wasn't working and jumped down the shaft. She'd just discovered the skeleton of her boyfriend. In a way, it was closure, but in a way it was also a fresh wound."

My sergeant turned his back on me, looking over the papers as if he'd be able to discount the presence of a suicide note at a glance. I knew that discovering who'd murdered his cousin back in Rosek had brought him some closure, but I also knew that it had brought him new demons. It was the reason why he'd transferred to Socrico afterwards.

What if Frankie hadn't been able to cope with her demons?

I softened my tone. "Come on. You know I'm speaking the truth. Anyway, we have to follow procedure."

***

Three of us bagging the papers made the process faster, but it still took a good hour. Frankie couldn't be removed without disturbing the evidence, and so it wasn't until we were finished that she was taken. Alex and I followed later, without a suicide note.

We met Dixon in the lobby, looking remarkably calm. At least, calm compared to Alex, who'd ripped his top buttons open during the search and was flushed with agitation.

I explained everything we'd found at the crime scene. Dixon listened to it all without interruption. When I was finished, he said, "You might be close to finishing your investigation."

"Sir?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you believe someone could have wrestled her to the lift doors and pushed her down the shaft without making a commotion."

"You believe it was suicide, sir?"

"If Frankie was the murderer, you were starting to draw a net around her. And she knew it."

"We still don't have substantial evidence linking her to the crime."

"And there wasn't a note with her body," Alex added.

"Check upstairs in Janet Temple's flat. She might have left one there." Dixon lowered his voice. "Janet hasn't been informed yet."

Great.

Alex took the stairs two at a time, his movements sharp with anger. I was left behind, and, sensing a tiring day ahead of me, I made no effort to catch up.

I found him waiting at the top of the first set of steps, his face pale and his breathing laboured.

"You look terrible," I said. "I can go up there and inform Janet on my own."

"I'll be all right. I think."

"That's very encouraging." I turned the corner to the next set of stairs and parked my bottom on the lowest one. "Let's just sit down for a minute."

He sank down beside me unsteadily. As he pressed a hand to his forehead, my heart ached. I wished now, more than ever, that I could take the pain away from him.

We sat in silence for a few minutes. Eventually, he lowered his hands and looked at me. "We were with Frankie yesterday morning. She was at the police station a few hours before she died. And we didn't even know she was in danger."

"So we couldn't have done anything." I leaned against him. "When we were working on The Diamond murders, Zed Croft and Evan Archer died right in front of me. Even when I was there at the time of death, I couldn't do anything. Sometimes our job is to protect people, but sometimes events can't be stopped. Then our only job is to pursue truth and justice."

Alex sighed. "The truth is that this can't be suicide. The message Frankie sent to Becky suggests she was planning to return. And if she stole Lonn's work as a bluff to cover up her real motive, why would she make the jump with it?"

I smiled wanly. "Okay, fine. I guess if you don't think it's suicide, it's not suicide. Remember Ripley Lewis?"

He stared at me for a long moment. Then his lips quirked upwards. "That's dangerously close to calling me an oracle."

"If you were an oracle, I'm sure you'd tell me that we won't find a suicide note in Janet's flat. But I am going to ask you to check anyway." I stood up. "Can you manage the rest of the stairs now?"

He managed both to climb them and to leave me behind again. But he waited for me just before we reached Janet's floor, and we entered the hallway together.

She wrenched the front door open before we reached it, her face pale. "Inspector Rames! What's going on? I can see police robots guarding the building from my bedroom window." She swallowed. "And one of Frankie's friends phoned and said she's gone missing..."

"Mrs Temple," I said quietly, "maybe we should go inside."

We edged over the threshold. I put my hand on Janet's shoulder, guiding her into the living room. "We'll have to ask you some more questions."

She sank onto a sofa and pressed her knuckles against her lips. She knew the reason why; knew and feared it at the same time. I could see it in her eyes.

Alex and I shared a look. I inclined my head towards the door, asking him to start searching for a note. Sparing him.

When he'd gone, I sat down beside Janet. "I'm sorry, Mrs Temple. Frankie's dead."

***

Fifteen minutes later, I handed Janet another tissue and tried to start my questioning for the third time. "Can you think of any reason why Frankie might have taken her own life, Mrs Temple?"

Again, Janet's sobbing increased, and she raised the tissue to her eyes. I waited.

At last, she shook her head.

"Did she make any contact with you yesterday?"

Another shake.

"Not even to talk about Paris?"

"No." Janet's voice was thick. "She wouldn't have wanted to. Not when she thinks it was Lonn who...did it."

"So when was the last time you were in contact with her?"

"Friday." Janet scrubbed her eyes and added, "Apart from the letter she sent."

"So the last time you saw her was when we came to talk about Lonn?"

More tears spilled over. Janet gulped and nodded.

"Do you know if Frankie had any enemies? Anyone who might have wished her harm?"

"I hardly even knew her friends."

"Do you know Jude Bray?"

"No." There was no flicker of recognition in her eyes.

Alex entered the room and stopped behind the opposite sofa. He caught my eye and gave a barely perceptible shake of his head. No note.

I stood up. "Just one more question, Mrs Temple. Where were you between five and seven yesterday evening?"

"Here." Her voice shook. "Just sitting here and thinking about Lonn. I stayed here all night."

"So you would have known if Frankie had come in?"

"Yes. She didn't."

"Thank you." I hesitated. "Is there anyone you can call to stay with you?"

"No. I don't have anyone left." She lowered her head and pulled a sewing project across the table, the only lifeline remaining for her. "I just want to be alone."