‘Hidden,’ Fran says, ‘he hid it there. He must have done, no one else drove that precious car of his. What has he done to my daughter? Where did the blood come from?’ She is weirdly calm, not at all like the fiery, angry Fran that I’ve been used to dealing with for the past three years. It’s as though all the life has drained out of her since Laurel has been gone, and now the news that Dominic is responsible has just pushed her over the edge.

‘Dominic says that he has no idea where the sock came from, and that it could have been there from a previous journey that he took with Laurel in the car a few weeks ago. Although, obviously, Fran you contest that, saying that Laurel was wearing those socks on the evening that she went missing. Dominic also says that Laurel was prone to nosebleeds and that the blood could have been from a nosebleed. Did Laurel have any nosebleeds that day, or recently at all?’

I think hard for a moment. Fran looks away, waiting for me to answer, the ghost of my words asking her why she wasn’t there for Laurel hanging in the air. She had been so busy with auditions and meetings that Laurel had seen fairly little of her in the weeks leading up to her disappearance. It had been me that had had practically sole care of Laurel in those last few weeks. ‘No, not that night. Definitely not that night,’ I say, ‘in fact, I don’t think she’d had one recently at all. Not since the summer. She tends to suffer dreadfully from hay fever from May until around the end of July, and that’s when she seems to get the nosebleeds. She certainly hasn’t had one recently.’ There is silence as the full implication of my words sinks in. DS Wright gets to her feet, and starts to make her goodbyes, but Fran lays a hand on her arm.

‘Wait. What happens now?’

‘We will continue to press Dominic on where we can find Laurel, but I will be brutally honest with you, we’re not sure that we will find her alive. You need to prepare yourself for the worst-case scenario.’ She pauses at the doorstep, turning back to Fran. ‘In light of the information you’ve given us today, we will be formally charging Dominic Jessop with the abduction of Laurel. I’m so sorry, Fran.’

We watch in silence as she walks away to her car, Kelly scurrying off to the kitchen to make more tea, no doubt.