‘Graeme had a life-insurance policy. That’s what I spent it on. We talked about it before he died. She went to state school until she was eleven, then Grafton.’

‘Do you have Lucy and Harry’s numbers?’

‘I’ve got hers – she’ll be able to give you his.’

‘Thanks.’

‘Becca and Harry were never involved?’ said Robin.

She shook her head. ‘As I say, it’s always just been platonic.’

Missed opportunity, Robin thought; he was fit. She heard Corinna’s voice suddenly, dust-dry, ‘For god’s sake, Rob. I’m dead, you’re trying to find someone who’s probably dead as well – a little focus, perhaps?’

The pain – longing, loss, a desperate urge to laugh; it was sheer luck that she didn’t yelp. She caught her own eye in the mirror – steady, steady – then Valerie’s. She looked away, took a deep breath. A little focus. ‘Yesterday,’ she said, ‘when you told us you checked in with her work because her bed hadn’t been slept in – was that unusual? If she doesn’t have a boyfriend. Does she stay over with friends? How often doesn’t she sleep here?’

There was a pause, small but marked. ‘It was when I found the phone as well that I started worrying, not just the bed. Rebecca’s twenty-two. She can stay out, can’t she?’

‘Of course.’ Maggie, soothing.

‘But just to be clear, you mean with men?’ Robin pressed.

‘She’s an attractive girl, she’s never gone short of attention. She has flings, yes. One-night stands.’ Valerie locked eyes with her, as if daring her to be shocked.

You’ll have to try harder than that, Robin thought. ‘Has she been doing it lately? Staying out, I mean?’

‘Yes.’

‘Would she go home with someone she’d never met before? A stranger?’

Valerie turned to the window, biting a piece of dry skin on her lip between her eye teeth. ‘I don’t know. No, of course I do. She would. Yes.’

Chapter Six