He took something from her tone. ‘Have you contacted the police?’

‘They’re not interested, there’s no law against going missing.’

Peter began putting his belongings into his leather briefcase. ‘I’m sure she’ll turn up.’

‘You don’t seem that bothered.’

‘If I had a pound for every student who didn’t turn up to classes for a few days.’

‘This is more than that,’ Hannah said. ‘She made an appointment with you, maybe she was worried about something?’97

‘Maybe,’ Peter said. ‘But her grades and lab work are fine, she’s a model student.’

‘Exactly,’ Hannah said. ‘So where is she?’

‘I’m sorry I can’t be more help,’ he said, looking at his watch. ‘I have a faculty meeting I’m already late for.’

Students were filing in for the next lecture, backpacks and water bottles, T-shirts and jeans, young men and women all present and correct, not missing from their lives. Hannah rubbed at her temple, tried to ease the pain. But throbbing behind it was something she was sure about. She’d checked Mel’s emails a hundred times, there was nothing in them asking Peter Longhorn for a meeting.

‘This is my granddaughter, Hannah.’

Hannah shook hands with the old man in the doorway, the skin on his hands rough and gnarly.

‘Hi, there.’

They were at one of the swanky houses on Hermitage Drive, round the corner from the allotments.

‘Jacob,’ the old man said, and waved them inside.

Dorothy and Hannah followed him through to the living room. Hannah had a small, black canvas bag full of camera equipment over her shoulder. Her hangover was clearing nicely, but she was still chewing over what Longhorn had said about an email. It didn’t make sense.

She’d been on her way home after classes when she got a call from Gran, asking her to come over and help explain how the spy cameras worked. She was glad of the distraction, to be honest, and she got to see Indy at Greenhill Gardens too. The cameras were pretty simple, small black cubes that could take snaps or record video when activated by motion in their field of view. But they 98were pretty old, didn’t have cloud backup, just SD cards that had to be removed and viewed on a laptop.

‘Hannah is our tech expert,’ Dorothy said, as Jacob hovered over a hard seat then lowered himself carefully.

Hannah guessed that it would be too much effort to get in and out of a sofa without some help, and Jacob didn’t seem like the kind of person to ask for assistance.