Then came the passports. Wherever Bev was, it wasn’t abroad. At least, not by conventional means. There was a will leaving everything to Torin and granting guardianship to her ex-husband; an exchange of lawyers’ letters arranging the terms of Tom’s contact with his son; a bundle of Christmas and birthday cards to Bev from Torin; a folder of Torin’s school reports; and finally, right at the bottom, a battered old address book.

Stacey appeared in the doorway, waving a small silvery box in the air. ‘A copy of Bev’s hard drive. And nobody will ever know I was in there. I’ll take a quick look tonight and forward her emails on to you. The rest I’ll let you have as soon as I can.’ She glanced at a slim gold watch that Paula reckoned must have cost a few months’ salary. ‘If I shoot off now, I’ll still have time for dessert.’

‘Good luck with that.’ Paula shovelled everything back into the drawer except the address book. ‘Thanks for this, Stacey. It’s looking darker and darker.’

‘I’m sorry, for your friend’s sake. I’ll be in touch.’ She half-turned to go then paused. ‘Have you heard from the DCI, by the way?’

Paula shook her head. ‘Not a word. I don’t even know where she is or what she’s doing.’

‘I expected her to come home to BMP once the dust had settled.’

‘Ha. You have to be joking. The brass don’t want her. She makes the bureaucrats look like a bunch of useless wankers. No, they were thrilled when she handed in her notice so she could move to West Mercia. But she never turned up. She resigned before she even started.’

‘I know. That’s why I thought she’d come back. For the sake of familiarity. And Tony, of course. He’s still at Bradfield Moor, isn’t he?’

‘Oh yes. They were over the moon when he said he wasn’t leaving after all. He’s living on a narrowboat down at the Minster basin. But he hasn’t heard from her either.’

Stacey slipped the hard drive into her pocket. ‘Maybe she’s the one you should be treating as a misper.’

22

Day twenty-five

Fielding definitely had presence, Paula decided. She appeared different in almost every respect from Carol Jordan, but the one thing they had in common was the ability to hold the attention of a room full of hard-arsed coppers. Nobody was whispering to their neighbour or texting their girlfriend while Fielding was running a briefing. She might be petite and pretty, but when she started talking you forgot those fleeting fantasies and focused on what she was saying. It reinforced Paula’s desire to make the right mark on this firm.