‘That afternoon I collected the disabled young man, then, as far as I can recall, I was at the house helping Miss Pilkington. In the early evening I went to collect another one of her clients.’ He shifted his weight from foot to foot. ‘I cannot give you his name or his address. It is a rule of the house.’

Miller turned without thanking him. Gregory already had the front door open and Spencer smiled and thanked him before following Miller down the path and back to their patrol car.

Miller gave him a sidelong look as they got in. ‘My God, that woman . . . like a beached whale.’ He shuddered.

Spencer did not reply. He had rather liked Mandy in the end, but he thanked God he would never be a part of her world.

*

Jane walked Eunice slowly arm-in-arm towards Victoria Station to catch her train back to Brighton. A thought occurred to her.

‘Did Justine know about Thomas?’

‘I don’t know, dear. She never mentioned it. I know Charlie never went to his grave, but then I hardly saw him in the past ten years or so. I think it might have been because I’m a reminder of the past. Truthfully, when he first met Justine I think he was happy for the first time in his life. She was so beautiful. I don’t know what happened, but on one occasion he did tell me she was cruel.’

They got to the platform, Eunice still tightly gripping Jane’s arm. ‘I may be speaking out of turn, but I’ve always thought that Clara has no real similarities to our side of the family.’

Jane nodded. ‘Well, sometimes family resemblance skips a generation.’

Eunice released her hand. ‘Maybe . . . I suppose I shouldn’t gossip.’

Jane saw her safely onto the train. She was concerned about having taken so long out of the station, but she also felt she had gained valuable insight into Charles Foxley’s sad need to visit establishments like Mandy Pilkington’s. She also began to think about what Eunice had said about Clara.

The truth was, Jane suddenly realized, she did look a lot like George Henson.

*

The team had gathered in the incident room. They had already lost a number of officers and no longer needed the much larger boardroom. DCI Tyler was sitting to one side and the officers were sitting at desks or perched on them. Miller, his shirt-sleeves rolled up, stood with a ruler indicating different items on the incident board as he talked them through the timeline they had so far verified for the Monday morning. They knew that Foxley had been to the agency as usual that morning and had then left for a session at Mandy Pilkington’s.