JACOB PIERCE.

As I pushed open his door, I found myself in a bigger, much nicer office, divided almost in two. One half was set on a raised platform, where Pierce had placed an eight-seater table, and a sideboard with a TV screen above it and video-conferencing facilities. In the other half was his desk, shelves full of more binders, and a line of five filing cabinets behind his chair.

I went through the binders in the same way as I had in the other office – and this time I actually found something: a file for Randolph Solomon.

It was a history of the work Seiger and Sten had undertaken on his behalf, all the way back to when they’d dealt with the estate of his late father. I could see Jacob Pierce’s name throughout, his signature at the bottom of forms and letters, some so old they’d begun to yellow, and then at the back was the paperwork associated with the move that Randolph and Emiline had made to Black Gale. I began to leaf through the pages more carefully, but couldn’t spot a single letter, form or agreement that might in any way be tethered to my case. There were none of the photos that Mills had taken on his phone when we’d seen him at the village – photos that Pierce must have asked him to take in order to ensure that nothing at Black Gale had changed, that no one was on to them – and there was no indication that the property had been bugged.

Frustrated, I switched to the cabinets behind his desk. Inside each of the files, I found an increasingly predictable mix of probate, house moves, divorce paperwork, employment law and business disputes. Nothing even remotely connected to the village.

I looked around the office, confused.

Why would Mills give me the alarm code if there was nothing here?

Maybe for the same reason he gave me a key that doesn’t open anything.

I glanced at Pierce’s desk, at his computer, and switched it on. As it chimed into life, I went through the drawers of the sideboard at the other end of the room and then fired up the video-conferencing equipment. It made a soft ping as a large, fifty-inch monitor blinked on, and then I reached for the camera underneath and turned it away from me just to be safe.

Picking up the remote control, I began cycling through some menus on the left of the TV. At the bottom was an option for Recent Calls. Most were the names of local businesses I recognized from the binders that I’d already been through, but a couple of them had red dots next to their names. Pretty soon, I realized why: they were recordings.

I pressed Play and got my first look at Jacob Pierce in action.