He almost choked on his tea. ‘You don’t miss a beat, do you?’

‘Would you want me to?’

She placed her hand on the back of his neck and pulled him closer. His phone started to vibrate on the table in front of them. She didn’t let go. The tightening in his stomach travelled towards his groin and he pulled away while he still could.

‘One minute,’ he said.

It was Claire. There might be news.

He sat upright and answered. ‘Hey, sis. Give me one sec.’ He placed a hand over the microphone. ‘Yes, Jane’s disappearance is related to my research.’ He felt strangely liberated speaking the truth.

‘Sorry, Claire,’ he said into the phone. ‘Everything OK?’

‘I’ve had a message from Jane.’

Jameson stood. ‘What? When?’

‘She sent me a private message on Facebook yesterday morning. I never go on so I didn’t see it until today when Dan was showing me pictures of his cousin’s new baby.’ She sounded agitated.

‘It’s all right. Calm down. Don’t beat yourself up. You’ve seen it now. What does it say?’

Jameson glanced at Sarah. She raised her eyebrows and mouthed, ‘Bad news?’ Jameson shook his head.

‘It says, “Hi Claire. It’s Jane. I’m with Mum. I’m OK but she has me locked in the attic of some house near Leeds—”’

‘What? How did they get to Leeds?’ said Jameson. The police said she hadn’t boarded a train. Idiots.

Clare continued, ‘“We were in the taxi for about half an hour and came to a town. I don’t know what it’s called, but I remember a church. I think it was All Saints. And a Majestic Wine shop. Sorry. That’s all I can remember. The house we are in is a three-storey terrace on a back street.”’

Jameson scribbled notes on the back of an envelope: 30 minutes from Leeds, All Saints Church, Majestic Wine, three-storey terrace on back street.

‘Then she says,’ Claire went on, ‘“I’ve only managed to get hold of Mum’s phone because we had a fight this morning and she dropped it, so this might be my only message. She’s acting weird and I want to come home. Please ask Marcus to find me.”’

Jameson stopped writing and swallowed the lump in his throat. How were they supposed to find her? A house with no number, no road name, no idea which suburban town near Leeds.

‘What does she mean, they had a fight?’ said Claire. ‘Lana won’t hurt her, will she? Tell me she won’t hurt her?’

Jameson knew he couldn’t do that. ‘Let me call Augusta.’

‘You have to find her, Marcus.’

‘We’ll do our best, Claire. I promise.’ He put the phone down.

‘I’m going to head off and let you get on,’ said Sarah. ‘This sounds important.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘Don’t be.’ She came over and kissed him softly.