Tom wasn’t feeling at all comfortable about his offer to help in the search for Hannah Gardner, and wasn’t sure why he had given in to Jack’s persuasion. He could only hope that his unease wouldn’t be too obvious to Nathan. Why was it that whenever his brother was around, Tom ended up circumventing the system – and in some cases, very possibly the law?

Philippa would be furious if she knew he was interfering in a missing-persons case, and his only excuse would be that Nathan was an old friend and he was simply offering a bit of advice. She had been surprised that he was going home on his day off, given the new case they had picked up, but Tom told her he had spoken to Becky and it didn’t seem as if he needed to get involved at this stage.

‘It’s looking like a domestic that went bad,’ Becky had told him when she called later that morning. ‘There’s no sign that anyone else was ever in the house, and Callie Baldwin is nowhere to be found. It adds up, Tom.’

He had agreed and left her to it, telling her they could catch up the next day.

To Tom’s surprise, Jack had been home when he arrived back from his tedious meeting, but when the doorbell rang to signal Nathan’s arrival he had disappeared into the dining room taking a mug of coffee, a sandwich and his laptop, although he had left the door ajar so he could listen in on the conversation. Tom would have much preferred his brother to be out of the house. He might spill hot coffee in his lap and shout out, or have a coughing fit, alerting Nathan to his presence.

Jack had even tried to provide Tom with a list of questions to ask Nathan, but Tom had merely raised his eyebrows and his brother had laughed. ‘Okay, Detective Chief Inspector, but if I’m going to be checking out this computer I’ll need some idea of what I’m looking for.’

Reluctantly, Tom went to open his front door to Jack’s old friend. ‘Come in, Nathan. Let’s go through to the kitchen.’

Nathan followed Tom and headed straight for the table, where he sat down and opened Hannah’s laptop. He didn’t bother with pleasantries and cut straight to the chase.

‘I’ve tried every obvious password, but nothing works. I’ve written down her full name, mine, our parents’ – although I doubt she would use theirs – all our dates of birth, the name of her first dog. The usual stuff. It’s all here, if your guy can use it.’

‘That’s really helpful. Thanks,’ Tom said. ‘Do you want a cup of coffee? I thought we could talk through what you’ve been doing up to this point to try to find her.’