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Chapters (62)
  1. Title
  2. Copyright
  3. Contents
  4. About the Author
  5. About the Book
  6. Dedication
  7. Your Worst Nightmare
  8. ONE
  9. TWO
  10. THREE
  11. FOUR
  12. FIVE
  13. SIX
  14. SEVEN
  15. EIGHT
  16. NINE
  17. The Answer to All Your Prayers
  18. TEN
  19. ELEVEN
  20. TWELVE
  21. THIRTEEN
  22. FOURTEEN
  23. FIFTEEN
  24. SIXTEEN
  25. SEVENTEEN
  26. EIGHTEEN
  27. NINETEEN
  28. TWENTY
  29. TWENTY-ONE
  30. TWENTY-TWO
  31. TWENTY-THREE
  32. TWENTY-FOUR
  33. TWENTY-FIVE
  34. TWENTY-SIX
  35. TWENTY-SEVEN
  36. TWENTY-EIGHT
  37. TWENTY-NINE
  38. THIRTY
  39. THIRTY-ONE
  40. Somebody Else’s Child
  41. THIRTY-TWO
  42. THIRTY-THREE
  43. THIRTY-FOUR
  44. THIRTY-FIVE
  45. THIRTY-SIX
  46. THIRTY-SEVEN
  47. THIRTY-EIGHT
  48. THIRTY-NINE
  49. FORTY
  50. FORTY-ONE
  51. FORTY-TWO
  52. FORTY-THREE
  53. FORTY-FOUR
  54. FORTY-FIVE
  55. FORTY-SIX
  56. FORTY-SEVEN
  57. FORTY-EIGHT
  58. FORTY-NINE
  59. Sunlight on Water
  60. July
  61. September
  62. Acknowledgements

‘Every day without fail. Mostly he’s there waiting when I open up. Come closing time, I show him the door and he totters away home to sleep it off. So like I say, whatever your business is with him, you’ve come too late today. If you want to get any sense out of him, you’ll have to come back before he’s downed his first bottle tomorrow.’

EIGHTEEN

EIGHTEEN

1 July

Feeling guilty for driving straight home from Chelmsford the previous day, Naylor is early for work. In the office, she notices Rose’s biscuit tin is empty, and she wonders if Campbell has been hanging around again, chivvying for results. She switches on Ron’s coffee maker, and as she’s pouring in the water she thinks about him, deciding that she ought to get in touch.

Hagen arrives soon after her, an earplug in one ear from the phone in his pocket, so the first time she wishes him good morning he doesn’t hear. She walks over to him and waves a hand in front of his face until he removes the earplug and switches off the music.

‘Good morning.’

‘Morning,’ Hagen replies.

‘I’m just making coffee, but there’re no biscuits,’ she says. ‘Was Campbell on the rampage again yesterday?’

‘I have no clue. I was late back, so I went straight home to a shower and a cold beer.’

‘How did you get on?’

‘Fifty-fifty,’ says Hagen. ‘Mayhew’s alibied indefinitely by chronic alcoholism and a pub full of witnesses to his daily habits, so put a line through him. Gillard I’m not sure about.’

‘You want coffee?’ Naylor leads the way back to the machine, which is just finishing its perking, and Hagen follows her. She passes him an almost-clean mug, takes one for herself and pours. In the countertop fridge, there’s hardly any milk.

‘You have it,’ says Hagen. ‘I’ll go black.’

Naylor smiles. There’s nothing black about Hagen with his Nordic blood. In summer, his blond hair is at its fairest.

‘So come on,’ she says. ‘What aren’t you sure about?’

‘From what I saw, Gillard was breaching his licence. I found him in a library, apparently indulging in a bit of online gaming. But full and free access to the internet must be out of bounds. And there were children in the library. I sent him on his way, and I think it’s fair to say he wasn’t happy. At the very least we should be notifying Probation. How about you?’

Naylor pulls a face. ‘I think I ticked a box. I spoke to the Focus’s legal owner, but she says she never drove it, that her old man used it for work. Apparently, it was nicked while he was making sales calls in Hartlepool. So I spoke to him to get his story, which sounded straightforward – a taxi and a train back down south.’

‘But?’

‘But what?’