‘He deleted it? But you found it anyway.’
‘I have my ways. But I should warn you: it’s a bit… racy.’
Cody raises his eyebrows. ‘I’m sure I’ll cope.’
I’m sure you will, she thinks. Not sure I will, though.
She opens up another application. It slowly flips through a sequence of photographs of a woman in various states of undress. Never entirely naked but wearing sexy lingerie and posing suggestively.
That woman is Alexa Selby.
While Cody studies the images, Grace wonders what’s going through his mind. Wonders if he’s getting all hot under the collar right next to her.
‘Jeez!’ Cody says. ‘How the hell did he get hold of these?’
‘They’re fake. Alexa’s head grafted onto someone else’s body, and with the background blurred out so you can’t tell where she is. He’s done a good job, probably with the aid of some AI image generator, but if you look closely enough it’s possible to tell they’ve been manufactured.’
‘And these were on Toby’s socials? No wonder Oliver got so pissed off. Still doesn’t explain why Toby lied to us, though.’ He looks at the computer for a few more seconds, then back at Grace. ‘Grace, you’re a star. This needs a bigger audience. You mind repeating your little presentation for the boss and a few others?’
She shrugs. ‘Not at all.’ She knows she could have done that from the start, could have gone straight to DCI Blunt with this vital information. But where would be the fun in that?
‘Great,’ Cody says, standing up. ‘And I meant what I said. If you ever need to offload, I’m always here for you.’
Always here for me, she thinks.
He’ll never know how much those words mean.
13
Without Love
– The Doobie Brothers
Cody is back in the same seat in the same interview room, next to a woman with a laptop again. Different woman this time, though.
Opposite him and Webley, Toby Hooper is nervously scanning the room.
‘Why do we have to talk here?’ Toby asks. ‘Why couldn’t we talk in my flat again, like we did before?’
Cody points his pen at the black box of an audio recorder on the table. ‘We want to be sure this is all recorded. Things are a lot more serious now, Toby.’
Toby blinks. ‘W-why are they more serious? Am I under arrest?’
‘No. We’ve already told you that you’re not under arrest, but there are some things we need to clear up.’
Toby looks around the room again. ‘I don’t like it here. It’s got no windows. Should I have a lawyer?’
‘We’ve also told you that you’re entitled to have a lawyer present. You declined the offer. Have you changed your mind?’
‘Yes,’ he says. And then: ‘No. Let’s just do this, okay? I want to go home. I’ve got nothing to hide.’
‘That’s good to hear, Toby, but we’re not entirely sure it’s true.’
Toby narrows his eyes. ‘What do you mean?’
‘The first time we spoke to you, we asked you if you’d ever met Oliver Selby, Alexa’s husband. You said no.’
‘Well… that’s true. I haven’t.’
‘Uh-huh. I want you to take a look at something…’
He looks to Webley, who swivels her laptop around so that Toby can see the screen.
‘For the benefit of the recording,’ she says, ‘we’re showing Mr Hooper CCTV footage taken at Heswall Leisure Centre.’
She clicks a key to run the video. ‘Who’s that in the clip?’
Toby pushes his glasses up on his nose. ‘It’s… it’s me.’
‘Right. It’s you.’ She starts up the second video. ‘And now this is you outside the leisure centre. Agreed?’
‘I… I suppose.’
‘Okay. Now keep watching.’
Together they watch the attack unfold. Webley pauses the video before the unidentified male leaves the screen.
‘Who’s the other man, Toby?’
