Mandy spoke with such a lack of conviction I wondered if she actually wanted us to think she was lying for her husband. ‘Yes, he was.’

‘We’ll need you to pop in to the station to make a formal statement,’ I said. I suspected she’d talk when she was away from Gary.

‘Go back to bed now,’ Gary said.

‘I’m fine.’ Mandy flicked her eyes at Gary. There was a subtext here that was intriguing me.

‘We’re okay for tea,’ I said, ‘but sit down a moment.’

Mandy walked across the room and perched on the sofa arm, giving the dog a wide berth. ‘Gary rescued Flossy,’ she said. ‘She was abused. That’s why she’s not very friendly.’

Gary looked embarrassed. ‘The police don’t need to know that,’ he said. ‘I only did what anyone would have.’

‘He loves dogs,’ Mandy said.

I hadn’t expected that. ‘Well, good for you,’ I said to Gary.

‘Whatever. What else do you need to know?’

‘I gathered yesterday that you were concerned about the threatening comments on the Great Meat Debate website?’

‘Of course we’re concerned.’ He put concerned in air-quotes. ‘You’ve just seen those nutters. How would you feel if a bunch of eco-terrorist twats were threatening to cut your throat?’

‘Do you know anything that specifically links them with Violet’s disappearance?’

‘Other than saying they’re going to kill her and then putting a banner up basically confessing? I told you – they’re psychos. There’s children starving, and all they’re bothered about is a few pigs.’

As if you couldn’t care about both children and pigs. Maybe this was to re-establish full macho mode after Mandy’s revelation about Flossy.

‘I’m worried about Gary,’ Mandy said. ‘The Pale Child saw his face.’

The Pale Child? I pictured Violet in her video, eyes stretched wide, trying to hide her fear.

Gary spun round to Mandy. ‘For God’s sake, woman! You need to go back to bed. The detective doesn’t want to hear this crap. This is about Violet. And if anyone’s going to get me, it’s not the bloody Pale Child!’

‘What exactly did you see?’ I asked Gary, intrigued by his outburst.

‘It’ll have been some idiot kid running around in the woods,’ he said.

‘You told me she saw you, Gary.’ Mandy’s voice was rising. She looked at me imploringly, giving me the impression she wasn’t used to being listened to. ‘He admitted it last night when he’d had a few drinks. He was in the woods and the Child saw him.’

‘The detective doesn’t want to hear about this,’ Gary snapped.

I noticed the use of the singular detective. Did he not even acknowledge Jai’s existence?

‘Why were you in the woods last night, Gary?’ I asked.