Page 61 of In Too Deep

Jake inhaled sharply. “Robyn gave it to me. Night of my supposed last gig in Hartswick.”

Harrison raised an eyebrow.

Jake gave a small shrug, though it did nothing to hide the ache beneath it. “Said if Neon Arcade made it big, I’d need summat to remind me where home was. Apparently swallows always come home.” He covered Harrison’s hand where it rested against the pendant, keeping it there. “She thought I were the one leaving.”

Harrison had nothing he could say to that.

Jake did. And Harrison should probably have known what was coming.

“How’ll you find out who she is?” Jake glanced down at him. “The woman in the river.”

Harrison didn’t want to have this conversation. Certainly not here, with Jake warm and naked against him and the last few minutes still lingering between them. But Jake had given him the night without asking for anything. Harrison doubted he’d give him another.

So he stuck to process. Things he could tell him without crossing any lines.

“Fingerprints, if we can recover them and she’s already on record. Dental records, if we have someone to compare them against. DNA if we need it.”

Jake closed his eyes. “How long does DNA take?”

“Depends what we’ve got to compare it with. If her DNA’s already on a database, that helps. Otherwise we’d need a possible identity first and potentially samples from relatives.”

Jake turned his head. “Family?”

Harrison knew immediately where his thoughts had gone. Jake’s conviction meant his own DNA had been taken years ago. If there was reason to compare the woman from the river against the Whitton family, Jake himself could provide that comparison.

“If we had reason to believe she was a particular missing person, yes. We could use a close relative’s DNA to help confirm or exclude the identification.”

“Mine?”

Harrison hesitated. “Potentially.”

Jake was quiet for a moment. “Don’t you get family to look at the body?”

“Not like that.”

Jake frowned.

“We wouldn’t bring every family with a missing daughter or sister into a mortuary and ask them to look at her, Jake. Particularly not after she’s been in the water that long.” Harrison kept his voice gentle. “If we had strong reason to believe we knew who she was, there are circumstances where family might be asked to make a visual identification. But we’d use forensic identification wherever possible. It’s more reliable, and there’s no reason to put a family through seeing a body like that unless it’s necessary.”

Jake looked away, absorbing that. Then his eyes came back to Harrison. “What if there’s summat on her? Clothes. Jewellery. Tattoo. Summat somebody could recognise without having to see her.”

And there it was. The line between explaining procedure and discussing evidence from an active murder investigation.

“Jake…”

“What?”

Harrison closed his eyes. “I’d rather leave the specifics until we know more.”

Jake pushed himself up onto one elbow. “So there is summat.”

Of course he’d caught that.

Harrison opened his eyes and held Jake’s gaze, weighing what he could say against what one answer might actually give him.

“Did Robyn have any tattoos?”

Jake frowned. “No. Not that I knew of. Dad fucking hates tattoos. She’d never have heard the end of it.” A faint smile softened his face. “She could draw, though. Used to sketch stuff all the time. Said she were gonna design my first one when I turned eighteen. Cause boys in bands need tattoos.” The smile faded. “Never got the chance.”