‘You know what teenaged girls are like.’

‘Think you’re going to find her? ’

Logan crossed his arms behind his head and frowned at the ceiling. ‘Depends how things go tonight.’

Jackie stood, letting the towel fall away as she squatted on the floor and dug about in an overnight bag, coming out with a hairdryer. Plugged it in. ‘I need to phone Bill later. See how he got on at the Home Office.’ The hairdryer whooshed and howled.

‘Chances are she’s not going back to the soup kitchen again, not if the place is swarming with CID. . . But maybe we’ll turn up someone who’s seen her? Someone who knows where she is? ’

Jackie raised her voice, over the noise. ‘They’re interviewing him for a new position: liaising on terrorism suspects.’

‘I mean, it’s not like she’s just going to waltz into a police station and hand herself in, is it? ’

‘He wants us to move to London. . . Only just got Rory settled in primary, how’s he going to feel getting uprooted from all his friends and dumped in some school full of Cockneys and Essex boys? Bloody stupid idea, but then that’s Bill all over.’

‘And the whole thing’s a mess too – Steel’s running about like an angry crocodile, Ding-Dong and Leith are at each other’s throats, and you lot are up here telling us we can’t do our sodding jobs.’

The hairdryer fell silent. Jackie stared at him. ‘You’ve not been listening to a word I’ve said, have you? ’

‘Bill’s getting a new job; you don’t want to move to London. See? ’

‘And we’re not saying you can’t do your jobs, we’re saying there are other avenues of investigation you could be following. No one’s even looked into local Wicca groups. And what about the metal stake she used to necklace Roy Forman? She had to get that from somewhere. Then there’s the soup-kitchen angle—’

‘I know – I came up with it. Assuming Rennie and Ding-Dong don’t screw everything up. . .’

The hairdryer started up again. ‘Thought you’d be over this obsessing about work thing by now.’

‘Agnes Garfield is a card-carrying danger to herself and others. The longer she’s out there, the more people she hurts playing Witch-Finder General. It matters.’

A sigh. ‘Fine, go. Leave me here in your fusty caravan. But I’m warning you right now: I’m drinking the rest of the wine. And I have to be up at half six tomorrow, so if you think you’re in for seconds you’d better get your arse back here before midnight. Understand? ’