Patrick nodded. ‘I know, I know. Listen, as soon as this case is over, I’ll sort something out. I promise.’

The three of them fell quiet. The only sound was a singing guinea pig from the TV in the other room.

‘What about Gill?’

Both Patrick and Mairead looked at Jim. He usually refused to speak Gill’s name.

‘She can hardly look after Bonnie,’ Mairead said.

‘I know that. I don’t want her anywhere near our granddaughter. But do you know what’s happening there? When are they going to let her out? Is she going to be allowed access?’ Before Patrick could respond, his dad fired another question at him. ‘You went to see her the other day, didn’t you?’

‘Yes.’

‘And how was she?’

‘She seemed . . . better. A lot happier. More her old self, in fact.’

‘So, what? Are they going to let her out? What are you going to do when that happens?’

Patrick sighed. ‘I don’t know. I really don’t know.’

‘I don’t know why you haven’t divorced her . . .’

‘Jim!’ Mairead finally snapped. ‘For goodness sake, shut up.’

Jim pouted like a pre-schooler. ‘Alright. But if and when they do let her out, you’d be mad to take her back, son. As mad as her.’

Down the hallway, Bonnie started wailing. Mairead immediately moved towards the door.

Patrick stopped her. ‘No, Mum. I’ll go.’

He hurried off toward Bonnie calling out, ‘Don’t worry, sweetheart, daddy’s coming.’ At the same time he thought about his dad’s questions. Why hadn’t he divorced Gill? And what was he going to do when they discharged her? Did he still love her?

It was a bigger, more difficult puzzle than any missing child.

He waited until Bonnie was fed, bathed and in bed before heading back to the station, leaving his parents in front of the TV, his dad frowning at his Sudoku while his mum watched Coronation Street. Through the day, Carmella had updated him on the lack of progress and their failure to locate Alice and Larry.

When Patrick got to his desk and checked his email, he found that Helen had emailed him the list of Alice’s friends. At the top was Alice’s best friend, Georgia, followed by around forty more names. How did girls have so many friends? He imagined her Facebook friend list was considerably longer but, according to Helen’s email, these were her real friends.

This was the kind of job he ought to delegate to a lower-ranked member of the team, but Patrick wanted to hear the voices of the girls and boys on the list. He wanted to hear any hint of a lie or cover-up. He picked up his desk phone and started dialling, beginning with the name at the top of the list.

It was going to be a long night.