By the time Josh had concluded his business with Linus Pole, it was daylight. Josh turned the car around and set off again, while the sun rose on another blisteringly hot day. Last night had turned into a waking nightmare, but today was a new day and he was going to see Claire and talk her round. He was going to roll over about the big wedding. Use that as a sweetener. He couldn’t just give up on her. She’d been upset after the fight, but today she would see reason. He knew it.

But when he got to the campsite clearing, all hell was breaking loose. As soon as he saw the flashing blue lights of a police car, his guts clenched in alarm. Muskras, here? It was unheard of. He drove straight on, and stopped two hundred yards along the lane. Then he got out, walked back to the clearing. Sure enough, there was the police car, parked up beside the vans. He hadn’t dreamed it. Its radio was burbling away, unheeded.

Josh looked around, feeling his heart pounding hard. There was his mum’s van, the curtains pulled shut. Cloudy’s big Morecambe was over there, the curtains closed, a light burning behind them. Claire’s folks’ van was lit up like Crystal Palace, the door wide open, yesterday’s washing still out on the line. He could hear raised voices coming from inside. Eva, Claire’s mum, was wailing. Young Trace’s voice was deeper. And Pally’s, deeper still, and Nanny Irene’s aged croaking. Now a muskra was coming down the steps. Josh saw that Blue was not at his usual post under the van.

Josh walked along the edge of the camp and came up close to another van. The dog tethered under it snarled, but he shushed it and it subsided; it knew him. Then Josh walked around the front and over to the policeman.

‘What’s going on, mate?’ he asked.

‘Who are you, sir?’ He looked about ten.

‘Bertie Mackey. I live over there.’ Josh pointed to a trailer across the clearing that was still closed up for the night. ‘What’s happening?’

‘Girl called Claire Milo’s been reported missing,’ said the copper. ‘Run off with her boyfriend, I reckon, ’cos he’s gone as well. Took her dog too, by the sounds of it.’

Josh felt his heart contract with shock. Claire was missing? Shit, what was going on?

‘Stay here, will you, sir? I’ll just be a moment . . .’ The policeman went back inside the van.

Josh stood there, sickened and reeling. Claire, gone? Gone where?

Claire was a stay-at-home type of girl. She wasn’t flighty and flirty like Shauna, who regularly stayed out overnight doing God knew what. Everyone in the camp knew that. This wasn’t like Claire. Not at all.

He stumbled back along the lane to his car and got inside. For a while he sat there, dazed.