‘But it won’t be my birthday weekend then.’ Maggie knew she was being petulant but the thought of not seeing him all weekend filled her with dread. She didn’t want to be sitting at home alone obsessing over her family and why they hadn’t sent a single card between them.

‘I know, and I’m sorry. I did try but I couldn’t talk her round.’

Maggie bit down the angry retort about to escape her lips. It wasn’t Umpire’s fault his ex-wife was being a bitch. But is this what it was going to be like, at least until the kids were older, her always coming second to them?

‘Maggie? Are you still there?’

‘Yes, I’m here,’ she said sulkily.

‘I am sorry. Really I am.’

His conciliatory tone had the effect of softening hers. ‘I know. I was just looking forward to going away,’ she said with a sigh.

‘So was I.’

They chatted for a few more minutes, then said goodnight.

Maggie went back to scrolling through her news feed. She clicked ‘like’ on a picture posted by her friend Belmar Small, who she’d met when he partnered her as FLO on the Rosie Kinnock abduction case a year ago and who was part of Umpire’s unit. The picture was of him and his wife, Allie, clinking glasses in a bar on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent, where they were visiting his relatives. She was pleased to see how relaxed they looked after a difficult few months undergoing IVF for the first time with no success. They were due back on Saturday and had promised to celebrate her birthday belatedly. At least that was something to look forward to.

She was about to close down Facebook when curiosity got the better of her and she typed ‘Imogen Tyler’ into the search box.

Imogen’s profile page was like Lou’s – set to private and giving nothing away. The profile picture was a blurry shot of Imogen taken at a distance. Typing Julia Hepworth’s name into the search box yielded more than just a profile page, though – other mentions of her name appeared on screen too.

Maggie clicked on the first one and her heart sank. A woman called Iris Sharp had posted a gossipy, semi-illiterate item on a community group for Mansell residents that named Poppy as the pupil present when Benji died – and had tagged Julia in it.

It was bad enough that Poppy was named but Maggie couldn’t understand what had motivated Iris to tag her mother as well. Was it so Julia would be compelled to reply? To set trolls on to her? The replies to the post made Maggie even angrier – adults playing judge and jury by deciding Poppy must’ve killed Benji if the police had spoken to her. Why else would they question her?

Despite the late hour, Maggie called Renshaw.