Tom let out a long breath. He was relieved for Nathan, but it meant their search for Penny’s identity was not over yet.

As Tom pulled into the drive of his Edwardian semi, his thoughts were of Nathan Gardner’s sister. Where could she be? Nathan had given him details of everything he had done to try to find her and in the end had agreed to report her to the missing-persons team, after considerable persuasion. He was right: she wouldn’t be a priority, but if she turned up they would at least know who to contact.

Nathan’s appearance had inevitably filled Tom’s head with thoughts of Jack. Not a day went by when he didn’t think of him, although usually it was a fleeting memory. The earlier conversation with Becky and the unexpected appearance of Nathan Gardner, however, had left him with memories tumbling over each other to get to the surface.

Jack had been a wild kid who had given up on school at an early age. His brain seemed to be hard-wired for technology, and he had built his first computer before most people had even seen one. Tom had been in awe of his brother, with his intense pale blue eyes, as if the brain behind them never rested. Jack had gone on to make a fortune in Internet security, but try as he might, Tom couldn’t block out thoughts of his brother’s less than honest methods. He had built his business by hacking into the computer systems of large corporations and then going to them as a legitimate expert to sell his security services. His justification was that if he could hack their systems, so could somebody else – he was actually doing his clients a favour. But Tom seriously doubted many people had the skills Jack had, and the systems were probably safe enough.

However he made his money, he was still Tom’s brother, and the intense pain Tom felt when he learned that Jack had been in a speedboat accident and was missing, presumed dead, was almost matched by his anger, confusion and joy six years later when his world had been tipped upside down again.

Because Jack wasn’t dead at all.

His accident had been a set-up to protect the people he loved from some of the most evil criminals in the north of England. The world had to believe that Jack Douglas was dead, including those closest to him, and even now only a handful of people knew the truth.

Tom would never forget the moment when he had seen Jack with his own eyes on a monitor in the police control room. One of the most dangerous operations Tom had ever been involved in was under way, and right there, in the middle of it all, was the man he had been mourning for years. The pain and pleasure had hit him with equal force.