“I’m sure he will. Did Pat and Jenny keep any valuables in the house? Cash, jewelry, anything like that?”

Fiona’s shoulders came down again, a little, while she considered that. “Jenny’s engagement ring—Pat paid a couple of grand for that—and this emerald ring that our granny left to Emma. And Pat has a computer; it’s pretty new, he got it with his redundancy money, it might still be worth something … All that stuff, is it still there? Or did it get taken?”

“We’ll check. That’s it for valuables?”

“They don’t have anything valuable. They used to have this big SUV, but they had to give it back; they couldn’t make the repayments. And I guess there’s Jenny’s clothes—she used to spend a load on them, till Pat lost his job—but who’s going to do this for a bunch of secondhand clothes?”

There are people who would do it for a lot less, but I didn’t get the feeling that was what we were looking at. “When did you last see them?”

She had to think about that. “I met up with Jenny in Dublin, for coffee. This summer, maybe three or four months ago? I haven’t seen Pat in ages—April, I guess. God, I don’t know how it got to be that long—”

“What about the children?”

“April, the same as Pat. I was out here for Emma’s birthday—she was turning six.”

“Did you notice anything out of the ordinary?”

“Like what?”

Head up, chin out, straight onto the defensive. I said, “Anything at all. A guest who seemed out of place, maybe. A conversation that sounded odd.”

“No. Nothing was odd. There were a bunch of kids from Emma’s class, and Jenny got a bouncy castle— Oh, God, Emma and Jack … Both of them, are you sure they’re both … ? Could one of them not be just hurt, just, just … ”

“Ms. Rafferty,” I said, in my best gentle-but-firm, “I’m pretty sure they’re not just hurt. We’ll let you know straightaway if anything changes, but right now I need you to stay with me. Every second counts, remember?”

Fiona pressed a hand over her mouth and swallowed hard. “Yeah.”

“Well done.” I held out another cigarette and clicked the lighter. “When did you last speak to Jenny?”

“Yesterday morning.” She didn’t have to think about that one. “I ring her every morning at half past eight, once I’m in work. We have our coffee and check in, just for a few minutes. Like a start to the day, you know?”

“It sounds nice. How was she yesterday?”

“Normal! She was completely normal! There was nothing, I swear to God, I’ve gone over it in my head and there was nothing—”

“I’m sure there wasn’t,” I said soothingly. “What did you talk about?”

“Just stuff, I don’t know. One of my flatmates plays bass, her band has a gig coming up, I told Jenny about that; she was telling me how she was looking online for a toy stegosaurus, because Jack had brought home some friend from preschool on Friday and they went hunting a stegosaurus in the garden … She sounded fine. Totally fine.”