‘Not yet, sir. It’s a priority action this morning.’

Sergeant Dennison-Wilkins turned to Grace. ‘Boss, as the missing knife may be important evidence, we have taken a photograph of the matching knives. I’ll have all the gardens bordering the Paternosters’ house searched and all bins in the neighbourhood by Barbara Onoufriou and her team.’

‘Do you know when rubbish collection day is?’ Grace asked.

‘Tomorrow, sir, so we’ll be getting it done today.’

‘If you need more resources to search the immediate area, let me know.’

‘I will need more,’ she said.

‘Fine, draft in some extra staff. Norman, Jon, you’d better leave for the custody centre to carry on with the interviews, keep me posted.’

He was interrupted by his phone. Raising an apologetic hand, he answered. It was Aiden Gilbert, from Digital Forensics.

‘Roy, I’ve got the data from the phone we were sent over last night – registered to Mrs Eden Paternoster.’

‘Hang on, Aiden, I’m in a team briefing – I’ll put you on speaker. Can you update the team?’

A moment later, everyone in the room could hear Gilbert’s voice. ‘Hi, everyone. I can confirm, on examining the phone we were sent last night, according to the phone records and plot from O2, that the last time this phone was active was Thursday of last week, August twenty-ninth, until 10.10 p.m. It had left its previous location in Croydon, Surrey, at 5.45 p.m. and travelled south to Brighton, to Nevill Road, Hove. We’ve identified the Croydon location as the premises of the Mutual Occidental Insurance Company, which I understand to be Mrs Paternoster’s workplace. No calls were made before it was switched off.’

‘Hi, Aiden, Glenn Branson here,’ Branson called out.

‘Yes, Glenn?’ Aiden responded.

‘Was the phone’s battery flat when you received it?’

‘No, it wasn’t, but it didn’t have much charge and was switched off.’

‘Thanks.’

Grace thought for a moment. ‘Aiden, your team has Eden Paternoster’s iPad as well as her laptop and phone. Have you had time to check out her social media activity again?’

‘There’s been no more activity, at the moment. So far we’ve identified she has Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok and Strava on these devices.’

‘I’d appreciate it if you can let me know, soonest, if there is any activity on any of these.’

‘We’ll be straight on it.’ There was a brief pause. ‘Also, Roy, we’ve been working through the night on her husband’s phone. We may have some potential information for you shortly.’

Grace thanked Gilbert, ended the call and turned to DS Alexander. ‘Jack, I need you to prioritize the action with Mutual Occidental and find out who last saw Eden at work.’

‘I’ll do that straight after this, sir.’

Grace thought briefly through the possibilities, trying to make some sense of the convoluted information. Niall Paternoster claimed the photograph of Eden in front of the lake at Parham House had been taken on Sunday, yet Aiden Gilbert said it was date stamped over a week previously. Did the husband really think they would believe him? One of his favourite quotes – from Einstein – suddenly sprang into his mind: Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.