Winkler pressed print and waited for his shitty printer – was there ever a more temperamental piece of technology? – to grumpily awaken. That could be interesting too. Was Eileen’s reference to Sean going off the rails merely something about him fathering a child with not one but two black women? If Eileen was some kind of BNP nut, that would no doubt be seen as a terrible sin to her. He sighed. That probably was it, in which case the reference to Sean going off the rails when he was younger wasn’t going to lead him anywhere. It was just the ranting of a racist old woman.

There was no sign of the messages from the woman who had apparently contacted Helen saying she knew where Frankie was. He guessed that this woman had come to her senses and deleted all her messages.

He was about to move on to try to log in to Helen’s email when the little chat box in the bottom corner popped up with a new instant message.

It was someone he hadn’t heard of before, someone called Hattie Styles. Not one of Helen’s existing Facebook friends. Styles’ avatar was a mean-looking black and white cat. Winkler immediately smelled a rat. And the name . . . he was no fan of recent pop music, but even he had heard of One Direction and Harry Styles. It was an obvious play on that name. Did that mean he was dealing with a teenage girl here?

I knew Frankie wouldnt b in that house, the message read.

Winkler paused, his fingers poised over the keyboard. He typed, as Helen, How did you know that? Who are you?

The reply came back immediately. U need to look closer to home . . .

What do you mean?

He paused. He felt tense and excited. He added, Please tell me. I need to know what happened to Frankie. I’ll be so grateful if you can tell me anything.

There was no immediate response. Shit, had he frightened her off by being too needy? Maybe the best tactic would be to play it cool. But he wanted ‘Hattie’ to believe that she had power, make her want to show off. Of course, it was highly unlikely she actually knew anything, but it was worth a try.

Finally, the reply came back. You have a demon livin in ur house.

This was interesting. Was ‘Hattie’ talking about Sean?

He typed, What are you talking about?

Ur stepdaughter. She is evil. An evil bitch!!!

He responded with ???

Alice killd little Frankie. She is a devil. Her and her boyfriend. They are evil and r goin 2 ROT IN HELL for wot they have dun.

Winkler smiled. An obvious nut. Probably seen a picture of Alice in the paper and taken a dislike to her face.

Don’t be ridiculous, he wrote. Alice is a nice girl.