She entered: How to find hidden electronic bugs.

After she had done that, she did another search, this time for local locksmiths.

Then she made the decision that she could not stay here, it was too depressing. And besides, what could she achieve by becoming a fugitive from her own home?

44

Sunday 12 May

The rain had cleared overnight and it was now one of those rare, glorious, early-summer mornings, full of promise, with a cloudless sky and not a breath of wind. Roy Grace had worked in the incident room until late last night and was going back after lunch with Potting holding the fort this morning. He ran down the side of the steep field, exhilarated and excited.

Almost intoxicated by the sheer beauty of the rolling Sussex countryside in which he always felt he was lucky to live, he sprinted the last couple of hundred metres back down to the cottage as the ground levelled out. Humphrey, unusually, was dragging behind, to Grace’s surprise. Entering the gate into their garden, feeling pretty all-in after his run, he stopped to get his breath back and to do his stretches. Humphrey caught up with him, limping a little.

Grace stroked his head. ‘You’re not knackered, are you, boy? You’re just warmed up! The thing is, you’ve got four legs against my two, so it’s like you have four-wheel drive up those hills, right? Unfair advantage!’ Humphrey cocked his head and Grace stroked him again. He adored this creature, envying him, as he so often did, the apparent simplicity of his life.

When he went inside, he saw Bruno seated at the breakfast bar, glued to the television, on which a documentary was playing. The logo of the Discovery Channel was in one corner of the screen. Noah was sitting in his high chair, banging a spoon, a mess of food all over the tray and on the floor around him. Cleo, cracking eggs into a bowl, turned round with a smile.

‘How was your run?’

‘Eight miles!’ He kissed her.

Humphrey sat in front of her, head up, expectant.

She popped half an eggshell into his mouth, and he crunched on it contentedly for several seconds before it was gone, then looked up for another. ‘Eight miles – brilliant!’

‘How did you get on with the lots we’ve bid on at the auctioneers?’

‘Someone from Bellman’s left a message to say we’ve won three bids – two paintings and a runner for the hallway! I’ve arranged for Kaitlynn to collect them for us.’

‘Fantastic!’ He hesitated. ‘You’ve a PM tomorrow with Frazer, right?’

She nodded. ‘A woman in her thirties brought in yesterday. Looks like she fell from a balcony.’

He looked at the pile of mashed bananas on the wooden board beside her.

‘Are you making banana bread?’