They glance at each other before he opens the black bin liner at his feet, unzipping the rucksack inside it. Everything is still wet although it’s all been placed in clear bags. He lays a plastic sheet on the glass coffee table and takes out a Mars bar wrapper; a packet of Rothmans cigarettes; a GAP sweatshirt and a pair of jeans, both splattered with paint; and a Lloyds Bank cheque book. He places each item in front of them. Maddy picks up the bag containing the sodden cheque book, which has been peeled open. Max’s printed name is blurred around the edges, the stub clumped together. Her trembling fingers trail across the bags of clothes. A cry escapes her lips. She presses her fist to her mouth.

PC Dolan hesitates, holding something else in his hand, poised like he’s about to throw a dice. ‘We found this.’ He unfurls his palm to reveal a Yale key on a fob. ‘It was hidden in the lining of the rucksack.’

She examines the dull brass next to the constable’s thick gold band, worn into the fabric of his skin. She exchanges a look with him, then with PC Wright and takes the front door key. ‘Plot 146’ is scribbled in biro on a piece of card framed in an oblong of plastic.

She holds it up, dangling it between them. ‘It isn’t ours,’ she says.

Chapter Two

Maddy stares at the key and her mind clouds over, blocking her thoughts with too many questions.

Sarah arrives with Sophie and Emily moments later, clattering through the back gate full of chatter and laughter. Emily is the first to spot her through the French windows, sitting with the constable who is tidying Max’s things back into the bin liner. All three of them stop dead and stare through the glass. The constable slides the patio door open.

‘Everything okay?’ Sarah’s voice rings a high note of alarm.

‘Mummy!’ Emily cries and runs into her open arms. Maddy tries to stand up but her legs wobble and she crumples back down.

‘Mummy?’ Emily wails like an injured bird, clinging on to her.

‘What’s happened?’ Sarah asks in a quiet voice, arm around her daughter Sophie. Emily stands between Maddy’s legs, searching her face. PC Dolan sits near them.

Maddy’s mouth makes strange shapes, barely able to say the words. ‘Daddy’s had an accident.’ She sucks in a breath and the tears come fast, uncontrollable. She pulls Emily to her, sobbing into her daughter’s hair as she rocks her back and forth, never wanting to let her go.

‘He was seen falling into Yeading Brook last night, but I’m afraid, as yet, he’s not been found,’ PC Dolan says.

Maddy squeezes the key in her fist and stuffs it in her pocket.

‘Oh, dear God.’ Sarah wraps her arm around Maddy.