A week wasn’t anywhere near long enough, especially with the scratch team she’d been assigned. She needed someone who would be able to research the history, maybe find some people with connections to Selverton. Amy was the obvious person to ask, but the thought of contacting her again after how they’d left things at Patrick Tranter’s house didn’t appeal. Harper had already ignored two of the journalist’s text messages, and quite liked the feeling of being the one in control. But, the case needed a researcher, and there was no denying that Amy was good at her job. Great, actually. And Harper didn’t have a lot of time to play with.

“Leave it with me,” she’d said to Thrupp. “If there’s anything to be found, I’ll make sure it is.” Even if I have to swallow my pride to get it done, she thought. Later she stared at her phone for a long time before she finally called the journalist and laid out what she needed her to do. Amy said yes, of course she would help, and after the call Harper felt OK, surprisingly. They’d both kept things very professional. And she had to admit, despite everything, that it was good to hear Amy’s voice again.

Three days later, Harper was standing on the shore when she looked up from examining the objects her divers had recovered to see Amy, tottering across the mud and stones towards her in her heels, clutching a plastic binder filled with papers.

“Where did you find all this?” asked Harper, when they’d spread the findings on the table in the police operations vehicle they were using as a base.

“Easy,” said Amy. “There’s a museum dedicated to Selverton and the New Riverby reservoir. It’s tiny, and it only opens for half a day on a Tuesday. Otherwise I’d have got it sooner.”

Tony Fisher, who ran the museum, was the great-great-nephew of the Mr Fisher who had owned the Selverton mill, which was the main employer for the village before it was drowned. The Fishers owned the mill for generations, but when the news came that the valley was to be flooded they shut the business down and moved to Manchester.

“Makes sense,” said Harper. “The man’s got a business to run.”

“True, but the Water Board gave the villagers four years to clear out. He could have kept the mill running for at least some of that time. It ripped the heart right out of Selverton, at the exact time when the families about to be displaced needed more than anything to keep earning for as long as possible. Selverton was a sinking ship, and Fisher was the proverbial rat. Tony says his great-great-uncle wasn’t too popular after that.”