‘Policy, do you think? Everything through him? And is this since Becca disappeared or has it always been like it? Either way, what does that tell us? I mean, it’s just a bar, isn’t it, a club, not the bloody Foreign Office.’

‘Though you could be forgiven for thinking that,’ Maggie replied, dry. ‘The Italian, two Australians that we know of.’

‘Seriously, though, Maggie, why does this “ship” have to be so tight?’

‘Harry? It’s Robin.’

‘Hi.’ Trepidation – what was she going to tell him now?

‘It’s okay,’ she said, ‘nothing alarming. I wanted to ask you about a woman called Tarin. She works at The Spot, we heard she and Becca were friends. Have you met her?’

‘Yeah, quite a few times. She’s cool, Becca likes her a lot. She’s Aussie, two or three years older than us. She’s over here travelling.’

‘You wouldn’t have her number?’

‘I don’t, sorry.’

‘Do you know her surname?’

‘No.’ A pause. ‘Why?’

‘Nothing specific, we’re just following up with anyone Becca might have talked to recently. Tarin’s away at the moment, taking a few days off, and obviously The Spot don’t give out staff numbers.’

‘Try Instagram – she’s got an account for her travelling pictures, she showed us one night. And actually, Becca showed me some of them too, independently.’

‘Do you know what her handle is?’

‘I don’t. But they followed each other, if that helps.’

‘Okay, great. Thanks. Harry – one other quick thing. You used to go and pick Becca up from The Spot, is that right? When she finished – quite late?’

‘Two o’clock, when they closed. Friday and Saturday, mostly. We’d have a drink then she’d come and stay at mine.’

‘So you picked her up so you could spend the night together? No other reason?’

‘Like what?’

‘You weren’t ever worried about her safety at The Spot?’

‘Why?’ His voice quickened. ‘Should I have been?’

‘Not as far as we know at this stage but we need to cover all the angles.’

‘I didn’t like her finishing so late,’ he said. ‘I liked picking her up because I didn’t feel great about her getting Ubers on her own. Even Ubers were a compromise – she wanted to get the night bus. God – was I worrying about how she got home and all the time, the danger was there?’

Punch-drunk as she’d been when she’d trawled Becca’s social media, Robin did now have vague memories of cross-referencing an Australian woman’s account somewhere. She found Becca’s page and went through the pictures one by one, scanning the comments for a likely-sounding username. A photo dated October showed Becca and Lucy at Sarehole Mill, Hall Green, according to the location stamp. Birthday outing to Middle Earth – love a Hobbit! Becca had written. @OzTarrynTravels – The place I was telling you about, Tolkien’s inspiration! Bingo.