Norman Potting raised his arm and caught Grace’s eye. ‘There’s normally only one, chief. Suspected cheating.’

‘So speaks the expert!’ said Kevin Hall. His remark was greeted with laughter, which momentarily broke the unusually sombre mood of the team.

Potting raised his arms and took a bow by twirling his hands.

‘So, taking your point, Norman,’ Grace said. ‘Who has suspected who here? Husband or wife? What—’

Grace’s phone rang. Glancing at the display, he saw it was Mark Taylor again. ‘This might be important,’ Grace apologized, answering it.

It was.

‘Sir,’ Mark Taylor said. ‘Just to give you a heads-up. The lady got out of her Range Rover to kiss lover boy goodbye. We’ve got some good photographs of her, I’m pinging them through to you now.’

As he spoke, Grace felt his phone vibrate, signalling an incoming email. ‘Nice work, Mark.’

‘Lover boy’s walking back to his car. He’s looking pretty happy with himself, if you get my drift, sir?’

‘Like he’s had a happy ending?’

‘Well – exactly.’

It took a few moments for the photographs to finish downloading. When they had, Roy Grace was staring at a woman in her mid-to-late thirties, with short, stylish fair hair that was looking a bit ruffled. She reminded him a little of the actress Sienna Miller – she had a certain beauty, but a hard edge to her face. He handed the phone to Branson, telling him to pass it round. ‘We believe this lady may be called Rebecca Watkins,’ Grace said. ‘Niall Paternoster’s girlfriend. I’d like you all to take a look at her. Rebecca Watkins. Anyone recognize her?’

Everyone in turn studied it carefully, each of the team shaking their heads, until it got to Polly. She stared at it rigidly for several seconds. Then she looked directly at Roy Grace. ‘I thought I recognized the name, sir. Now, seeing her face, I’m even more sure. I interviewed her along with a bunch of other people at Eden Paternoster’s employers, Mutual Occidental Insurance. If I’m right, Rebecca Watkins is Eden Paternoster’s line manager – her boss.’

‘You’re sure, are you, Polly?’ Roy Grace asked.

She hastily looked at her notebook.

There was a short silence. Just the sound of Martyn Stratford tapping his keyboard, who then looked up. ‘I can confirm that Rebecca Watkins works for Mutual Occidental.’ He held up his laptop, showing a photograph of the woman, looking even more severe in a dark business suit and white ruff collar.

There was little doubt in anyone’s mind it was the same person as the one in the photographs that had just been sent through to Grace’s phone.

A moment later, Polly confirmed it.

82

Friday 6 September

It had happened more than once before in Roy Grace’s career, when a fresh piece of evidence out of left field had turned an investigation on its head – or at least threw into question all their lines of enquiry, he well knew.

‘This information, combined with the discovery of the tracker, is making me think there are two other dimensions to this case that we need to investigate,’ Grace said.