‘She communicated with him up to four and five times a day and as time passed the messages got longer and more detailed. Then they decided to talk over the phone and that’s where the trail went cold.’

‘Who was the other man?’ asked Clay.

‘Richard Ezra. She communicated with him first.’

Dear Richard, I am new to internet dating and am not sure of the way to do this properly. Please let me know what you think of my profile? I am really interested in your profile. Like you I love to drink a glass of wine in front of an open fire. xxxxx Annie

Dear Annie, Like yourself, I am new to internet dating and a little nervous around the whole process. However, I kept coming back to your picture and profile and found myself hoping that we could enter into a dialogue. If you’re comfortable with this please reply to me, Annie. If you decide you can’t, or don’t want to, there will be absolutely no hard feelings. I’m assuming you won’t reply to me, so I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you well in your search for Mr Right. I confess, I’m a little jealous of this stranger to me but if he gives you the happiness you deserve, I take my hat off to him.

‘It’s the same man, same message, same language,’ said Clay. ‘Have you printed these off for me, Poppy?’

Poppy opened her drawer and pulled out two card files bulging with papers, and handed them to Clay.

‘How didn’t she see it?’ said Poppy. ‘I just don’t know.’

‘Because she didn’t want to.’ Clay felt dismay for Annie Boyd, for a lack of intuition that went some way towards sealing her sorry fate. ‘He’s using the same language to filter out clever women, women who aren’t that needy. He wants a woman who is so needy that she’s suspended her disbelief system. It’s the same principle as the Nigerian phishing emails with all their bad writing and spelling howlers. They’re aimed at people who think the emails are real, the same people who are stupid enough to hand over money to the scammers. What was the outcome with Danny Boy?’

‘It came to the point where Annie was about to speak with him over the phone and – bam! – he completely stopped communicating with her online.

Dear Annie, Something’s cropped up. Got to go. Bye, Danny.

‘No indicators as to why?’ asked Clay.

‘None. So, when Danny jumped ship, she started leaning on Richard. All I want is lasting happiness and to make you happy. If you don’t want to have a relationship with me, tell me now and I’ll walk away. These were phrases she bedded into messages to Richard and worded in a dozen different ways nine days into the daily exchange.’

‘How did Richard react?’