Despite the fact that Jack’s old friend Nathan Gardner was waiting back at headquarters, Tom decided to delay his return. Becky had spoken briefly to a sergeant at the local police station who remembered the attempted suicide at the Flash, and it seemed an opportune moment to look into the incident, although Tom had neither hope nor expectation that it would lead them to the identity of Penny.

‘It wasn’t reported,’ the ruddy-faced sergeant told them, ‘but everyone knew about it. The poor kid was obviously determined to kill herself, and managed it in the end. The sister – the one you were told had to be carried out of church – was actually the girl’s twin.’

Tom knew only too well how devastating it was to hear that a sibling had died, and he could only imagine how much worse it might be if it was both a twin and suicide.

‘Do you know anything about the family – where they are now, how they coped?’ Tom asked.

‘There was quite a fuss because the surviving twin blamed her parents. She said they had made no effort to understand the one who died – Esme, she was called. The other one, whose name I can’t remember, by all accounts walked out of the house without a backward glance. One of my colleagues lives not far away, and it was the talk of the area. Eventually the parents upped and moved to Scotland.’

They tested the sergeant’s memory for a little longer but finally accepted that there was no more to learn. Tom asked him to get in touch if anything else sprang to mind, and in the meantime to check the details of the girl’s family, including the name of the surviving twin. The twitcher at the Flash who had attended the funeral might well call in with it, but Tom preferred to have the facts confirmed by the sergeant.

Tom had felt a tingle at the back of his neck as they discussed the twins. There had to be some reason why Penny, as they continued to call her, had chosen to die where she had, assuming it was her choice. The Flash may have had some significance for the girls. On the other hand, the prickling feeling could be because Nathan Gardner was waiting to see him. Was it something to do with Jack? Why else would Nathan want to talk to Tom after all these years?

Tom had called Keith Sims to say he was delayed and he was hoping that Jack’s old friend would have gone by the time they finally arrived back. But as he and Becky made their way into the office, Nathan was still sitting there.

Tom felt unaccountably irritated. He wanted time to process all they had learned that day, and he could really have done without talking to this man right now. Given how long he’d been waiting, though, Tom didn’t really have much choice.