Robert Chuke’s face was now on the evidence board, alongside Angela’s. Ridley had just got off the phone to Police Captain Gallatos of the Hellenic Gendarmerie in Greece, who had said categorically that the bus they were searching for had not crossed his borders.

“Right!” Ridley barked as he emerged from his office. “We’re going to focus on Angela and Robert Chuke. She’s the youngest. She went from being a maid in a brothel, to being a housewife and mother. She wasn’t even trusted to be at The Grange on the night of the train robbery—she was off somewhere babysitting Kathleen O’Reilly’s kids. And she wouldn’t have had the smarts to lie to her own kids about going to Greece, so I still think that’s where they’ve headed. Maybe they dumped the bus. But she’s our weak link. We find her, we find them all.”

“Sir?” In Jack’s absence, Laura felt she had to remind Ridley how much Jack rated the intelligence of the women. “These women have stayed under the radar for so long because we underestimated them. They’re relying on it. They hid guns from Craigh, they hid their involvement in the train robbery from Newman and Thorn. With all due respect, sir, I don’t think we can dismiss any one of them as being a weak link.”

“So what do you suggest?” asked Ridley.

“It’s all smoke and mirrors, and misdirection,” she said. “Angela was banking on the kids mentioning their holiday, so we’d assume that’s where they were heading. But if you ask me, I think Greece is the only European country they’re definitely not in.”

Laura sat alone in the squad room. All the desk lights were off, apart from hers. Behind her, Ridley’s door was open, meaning he must be in Superintendent Raeburn’s office. She had demanded daily updates since the dead-end accusations thrown at Barry Cooper’s army buddies.

They didn’t know the exact day the women had left the country, but they did know that it had to be after Darren’s arrest, so Laura had put out an “all ports” warning requesting CCTV spanning three days. Now, she was watching CCTV footage of a bus matching the one Rob had bought in London, pulling off the Amsterdam ferry and heading south along the N236. Thirty minutes later, the N236 split into the N238 and the A28, and a faulty intersection camera resulted in Laura losing sight of the bus.

Ridley walked in at that precise moment and sat down at Jack’s desk.

“Pick a road to follow,” he said. “I’ll take the other one.”

And together, they worked into the early hours.

By 11 p.m., Maggie and Jack had arrived at Victoria Hospital in St. Lucia. Charlie was asleep in a private room, and Penny was at his bedside, struggling to sew a rip in the knee of his jeans.

“Hello, Mum,” said Jack, and she burst into tears, running into his arms and putting her head on his chest. He held her there for what seemed like an age. “It’ll be fine,” he murmured, knowing that wasn’t true.