But Leo can quickly confirm that all the texts and calls are to, or from, people with links to KGB: Brynn, Gordon, Kore, the new receptionist, a couple of the musicians, a catering company, the cleaners . . .

And Luna.

There are no names in the address book Leo can’t instantly link to work, either.

‘He must have kept his private phone, too,’ he says.

‘But he doesn’t seem to have had it with him when he crashed,’ Karen says. ‘So it’s probably still in his flat.’

‘I guess we’ll have to pop over. The keys are in that bag, right?’

‘I can’t just barge in there without clearing it with my superiors.’

‘I can,’ Leo offers. ‘Just a friend watering his plants or whatever. Surely there’s no law against that?’

Karen tests that out in her mind. Even if Billy didn’t keep a second phone, there might be something else in his flat that could give them a clue as to . . .

Well, as to what? she asks herself.

Maybe Billy Formby is simply as alone in the world as his meagre address book suggests. Maybe there really isn’t someone out there wondering where he is right now.

Frowning, she reads one of the texts.

‘Did Luna fire him?’ she says. ‘When she came back, I mean?’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘The last text from her is the exact same one you showed me. The one she sent all of you after she popped over to England: “Sorry, guys . . .” and then all that nonsense about needing time to herself.’

Leo is frowning at her, as though he’s wondering whether she has lost her mind. Karen tries again.

‘Why else would he have erased all the texts from her after that? And the calls too, there’s nothing from Luna since then.’

‘Since when? What are you talking about?’

‘Since she came back, obviously. Was Billy no longer trusted to wait on Her Highness?’

Annoyed, she pushes the phone away and returns to the kitchen table. Angry at Leo. At herself. Her Highness. So fucking unnecessary. When they’re finally talking again.

Leo stays by the counter with his arms crossed, staring at her blankly.

‘But she never bloody came back,’ he says with exaggerated stress on every syllable. ‘We haven’t heard a word from her since that damn text. Why would you think we have?’

Now it’s Karen’s turn to stare blankly while the words try to sink in.

‘Come off it, Leo,’ she says. ‘Her phone . . . Forensics told me it . . .’

She trails off while her mind races.

‘What?’ Leo barks. ‘What about Luna’s fucking phone? Kore said you’d traced it to Harwich in England. I haven’t heard from her since. No one has; they would have told me.’

‘So, where did she go, then?’