‘He was probably in shock, Diane. Besides, a public show of emotion is unnatural for some people. He could well have been suppressing it while he was in hospital. Being discharged and coming home would be the time when the truth hit him hardest, don’t you think? I mean, finding just Luanne waiting for him, and knowing that he’d never see the rest of his family again. There must have been a moment when he couldn’t suppress the knowledge any longer. That would be when his world caved in, I imagine. If he talked to a counsellor at the hospital, he was probably warned about that.’ Cooper gazed down at the cap of the mine shaft thoughtfully. ‘Although I’m not sure when that moment would be – because Mr Mullen didn’t actually go home, did he? He went to his in-laws’ house when he left hospital.’

‘No, you’re wrong. He did go home,’ said Fry. ‘I took him there.’

Cooper paused. ‘Oh. So you did.’

‘I wanted him to see the house after the fire.’

He hesitated for a moment, wondering what the right thing was to say. ‘Well, it wasn’t your fault, Diane.’

She was silent for so long that Cooper thought her mind must have switched to a different subject altogether, the way it sometimes did. And when Fry did speak, he still wasn’t sure whether that was the case, or not.

‘Thanks a lot, Ben,’ she said at last.

And then she was gone, and Cooper was listening to the faint hiss of his phone.

A second later, Georgi Kotsev emerged from a summer house a few yards up the steep path. The building was made of tufa, with a thatched roof.

‘I don’t see him,’ said Kotsev. ‘What is this place anyway?’

‘A tourist attraction.’

‘OK, I believe you.’

‘When we’ve finished, we can walk back to the village, if you’re too scared of the cable car. All we have to do is press a button to release an automated gate near West Lodge.’

‘Let’s keep looking.’

Cooper followed Kotsev up the path. Next summer, he ought to bring Liz up here. They could have a goat’s cheese panini or a tuna melt in the Hi Café, or sit on the terrace of the Summit Bar with a table among the flowers, overlooking Matlock Bath.

That was assuming they were still together next summer, of course. He’d never gone out with anyone for as long as twelve months before.

For a moment, Cooper turned to look back through the trees at the view down into the valley. He recalled that the white building near the tavern was Upper Towers, where beer had once been served to lead miners. Inside, it had round rooms, so they said.

‘Hey, here!’

Cooper spun round and found Kotsev standing with a Heights of Abraham employee in a high-vis jacket.

‘Have you got something?’