‘Did he say why he started taking photos?’

‘Not really, no. I guess it was just something that interested him.’

‘Ever hear him talk to your mum about it?’

‘Not that I remember,’ he said, ‘but Mum was the one who mentioned it to me. I had no idea he’d got into photography until she brought it up.’

‘So she was one who told you, not your dad?’

‘Yes. She said he’d become obsessed with taking pictures.’

Ross laughed. He’d interpreted it innocently, as a light-hearted comment that Francesca had made to him. And maybe it was.

Or maybe it wasn’t.

‘Your mum used the word “obsessed”?’

‘She was joking,’ Ross assured me. ‘He wasn’t obsessed. It was just a hobby for him. He started off using his phone, and then he picked up this cheap camera from a charity shop in order to practise with the real thing.’ He laughed again. ‘Dad wasn’t serious about photography, he just enjoyed trying. I mean, how can you be serious about photography when your only camera is broken?’

I frowned. ‘What do you mean, “broken”?’

‘I mean, the camera he bought was a dud.’

I thought of what Tori had said, about how Patrick had shown Laura Gibbs the camera – how he’d carried it on him – before he’d headed out on to the moors.

‘It was only some cheap thing from a charity shop,’ Ross continued. ‘Actually, thinking about it, I don’t know if Mum ever realized that it was busted.’

‘But, presumably, your dad then got the camera fixed?’

‘No,’ Ross responded, still amused by the story. ‘Not as far as I know. That’s probably why he kept it quiet from Mum. That’s just the sort of thing that she would have found hilarious and then absolutely roasted him about for weeks.’

‘So the camera never worked?’

‘No. In the end, it just sat on a shelf in his office. I’m not sure he ever took a single picture with it.’

22

The camera had just been a prop.

Patrick Perry had pretended to Laura Gibbs that it worked, even showed her the camera before he headed out into the valley. So did that prove he was having some kind of affair? There were certainly easier meeting places than the moors, much simpler routes for him to take to the main roads – if a car was waiting somewhere for him – but the fact that he hadn’t dressed for a hike did seem to play into it. Laura had told Tori that Patrick would go out without a coat. No backpack. No food or map. Not even hiking shoes. So if he had been going out there to meet someone, who? And if it was someone else from the village – if it was Freda or Emiline – why hadn’t Laura seen them heading out the same way?