You’re a liar, Norma, thought Clay.

‘What was her tone like with you, Lydia?’

‘She sounded worried for Daniel and sorry for me.’

Clay noticed the red veins in Lydia’s eyes and the sourness of her breath.

‘I phoned him every ten minutes but his phone was off. It was the same for the girls.’

‘And me,’ said Janine.

‘I phoned round all the people in our address book but no one had seen or heard from him.’

‘Before you last saw Daniel, did he ever say anything about former employees of Maguire Holdings?’

‘How do you mean?’

‘Did he ever talk about people who’d quit Maguire Holdings?’

She frowned and thought about it. ‘Richard Ezra was the biggest fish who jumped from the pond. There were others, I’m sure, but I couldn’t tell you who they were. Daniel worked there for a long time.’

‘Could you do me a huge favour, Lydia. Could you dig down deeper into your memory for the names of anyone who quit working at Maguire Holdings?’

‘It’ll take my mind off things, I guess. I’ll try.’

Lydia Ball rubbed her eyes hard with her fingertips and Janine wrapped an arm around her sister-in-law’s shoulder.

‘It’ll be OK, Lydia.’

‘Did you do anything else to try and find him?’ asked Clay.

‘We drove to his favourite place, hoping to find him, but he wasn’t there.’

‘What was that place, Lydia, Janine?’

‘Otterspool Promenade. Every so often, he used to drive down there at night. He loved the sound of the river.’

Clay focused on Janine, who looked as if a deeply buried family secret had just been leaked on the internet.

‘And it was well-lit, the prom… I told myself to start gearing up for the worst possible news. Maybe he had taken himself down to the prom and thrown himself into the river.’

‘Was he or has he ever been on prescription medication for his mental health?’

‘He’s never had a problem with his nerves as such.’

‘Has he ever gone missing before?’

The women looked at each other.

‘Yes,’ said Janine.

‘No, he wasn’t really missing,’ defended Lydia. ‘It was a blip, a bit of a mid-life crisis. He kept in touch when he went to find himself, didn’t he, Janine?’

‘When did this happen?’ asked Clay.

‘Last August,’ replied Lydia.

‘What happened after you couldn’t find him on Otterspool Promenade?’

‘We just had to sit it out, fear the worst and hope for the best,’ said Lydia. ‘Then round about half-eleven, the phone rings and it’s Daniel.’

Lydia started crying and, Clay guessed, they were tears of jagged relief.

‘And how was Daniel?’ asked Clay, focusing Lydia, dragging her back on track.

‘He sounded terrible, like he’d been drinking heavily and didn’t quite know the time of day.’