“You are officially out of your freaking mind!” Jane had listened patiently, fighting the urge to smack both men upside the head. “There is no way Maura is the apprentice, there’s just not.” She scoffed at the absurdity of the suggestion. If they only knew what she did, they’d see how ridiculous they were. Turning to rest her elbows on her desk, Jane noticed a simple blue envelope on its top.

“What’s this?” she asked.

Both Korsak and Frost peered at the envelope before racing to her side. They recognised the familiar shade of blue and Frost plucked it from her fingers before she had a chance to open it.

“Hoyt.” Korsak spat.

Both detectives watched slowly as Frost carefully peeled the flap open and peered inside. His mouth fell open as his heart sank into his stomach. While he wasn’t a regular visitor to the Isles home, he’d seen enough to know what he was looking at right now. He handed the photograph to Korsak and pulled out another small sheet of paper. ‘It’s time Jane.’ It read.

“You should see this.” Korsak asaid, handing the photograph to Jane. She took it quickly, staring at the image slowly, her mouth falling open. The image was of her, of course, asleep on Maura’s sofa.

“No!” Jane said. “It’s not possible; she wouldn’t do that, not to me.”

Frost and Korsak looked at each other sadly. “We don’t want to believe it Jane.” Korsak admitted “but we do have to look at all the suspects.”

Jane tossed the image on the desk; it froze her heart to look at it. “Maura doesn’t cross contaminate. EVER!”  Jane snapped at them, trying hard to ignore the photograph that seemed to have a magnetic pull. “She’s smarter than that. Someone’s setting her up.”

Frost nodded. He preferred that option to any of the others he’d had to consider.

Jane got to her feet and shook her head. “You guys need to work out something else!” she told them, “I’m going to talk to the lab techs.”

Korsak and Frost watched her leave. “Let’s see if we can find out where this image was taken.” Korsak sighed as he reached for the most recent image. To him it looked like it had been taken from the foot of the sofa. “Any ideas?” he handed it to Frost, knowing the younger man was more likely to come up with some technical way it could have been taken from further away.