‘Guilt lunch’ was a joke they shared. They’d established a weekly get-together not long after Craig left Jenny to shack up with Fiona, graduating over the years from Maccy Ds and KFC to pub food and now this. Maybe in a couple of years the guilt lunch would stretch to a Michelin star or two.

‘So how are you coping?’ Craig said.

It took a moment for Hannah to realise he was referring to Grandpa.

‘Fine.’

‘And your mum?’

‘She’s OK.’

‘It can’t be easy for any of you.’

Hannah nodded. ‘We’re keeping busy, funerals to deal with. And a case.’

‘For the private investigator’s?’

Hannah took a drink and sucked her teeth as the wine went down. She swirled the glass, watched the legs drag down the side.88

‘Mel is missing,’ she said.

‘Your flatmate?’

‘Yeah.’

Craig had met her once or twice at the flat in passing, Hannah remembered, and one day months ago when their guilt lunch spread into the afternoon, Indy and Mel coming to meet her just as Craig was leaving.

‘Maybe she went to her parents,’ Craig said. ‘Or a boyfriend.’

Hannah shook her head. ‘We tried all that.’

‘We?’

‘Me and Mum.’

‘The pair of you are looking into it?’

‘Sure.’

‘Do you know how to do that?’

‘As much as anyone.’

‘So where have you got to?’

‘I talked to her boyfriend and Mum spoke to a tutor. I had lunch with her brother yesterday.’

‘Anything?’

‘She had a secret phone. I have her regular phone, but she was getting messages on another one.’

‘Are you sure this is a good idea?’

‘How do you mean?’

‘You and your mum are both grieving, your mum especially. Her dad has just died, remember.’

‘So?’

‘It’s a stressful time.’

She wondered how she would feel if Craig died suddenly. But that was different, he was in his forties, Jim was seventy. His death wasn’t expected, but he’d had a good life. Indy was always coming back home from the funerals of kids, teenagers, young parents, crying about the loss of potential. That’s what hurt most, the death of hope that the next generation will be better than the last.

‘I think Mel’s case is keeping her mind off that.’89

‘That’s living in denial.’

‘Maybe,’ Hannah said. ‘But what’s the alternative, let it overwhelm you?’