‘It seems odd to me that no one ever saw George on the lake. He was spotted in a few shops and remembered fondly by the woman who owns the little shop in Portinscale. You work on the lake every day, and sail past the big house, but were unaware that anyone was there. You never saw a chimney smoking, lights burning or cars coming out of the lane; yet you did row up to the beach and saw several men up to no good, but failed to report it.’

‘No wonder Tilly came up here to hide rather than trust you lot. You finished?’ Graeme asked. The two men held each other’s stares. Matt broke away first.

‘Any idea where I can find this Johnny character?’ he asked.

‘You’ll have to ask Kelly. Goodnight.’ Graeme walked out of the room.

Matt left the ward and found the car waiting to take him back to his hotel opposite Eden House. He checked the investigation notes one last time before nodding off on top of the double bed, fully clothed, an empty beer bottle by his side.

Chapter 61

Kelly felt like her head was stuck to the pillow when her alarm woke her at seven o’clock on Sunday morning. Johnny lay beside her, wide awake.

‘How you doing?’ he asked. She’d been a mess last night. It had all come out, in an ugly, jumbled torrent of tears and snot. Johnny had listened; he’d held her and put her to bed. He hadn’t tried to solve it or make it all go away. He’d put no pressure on her to pull herself together or do anything other than melt down and burn out. It had felt good, but now, trying to muster the energy to face the chief constable and turn up for a day’s work filled her with dread. Her head was thick and her body ached with fatigue and exhaustion.

‘How bad do I look? We’ll take it from there. Pass me a mirror.’

‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you.’

‘Is it that bad?’

‘Nothing a strong coffee and some eggs won’t sort out. And loads of make-up.’

‘Thanks.’

‘How about we take some time off? I can arrange for Josie to go to her mum’s and we can go somewhere remote.’

‘But we’ve got our main holiday at the end of the year.’ They’d talked about taking a sailing trip along the Florida Keys for her fortieth and his fiftieth, though nothing had been booked yet.

‘I don’t think that’s going to come quickly enough.’