‘I promise,’ said Thea rashly.

‘Now please get out, so I can go back to work. We’re still searching lock-ups for animal parts, and logging hundreds of calls from the public, all sure they’ve seen suspicious Asians carrying bags of pangolin scales. The problem – one of many problems, actually – is that the trafficking has spread to Africa now, which makes it all much more complicated. And the wretched things are so easy to catch. They’re like hedgehogs – they just roll into a ball and sit there when anything scares them. Any ten-year-old can pick one up and sell it to a dealer. The whole thing’s hopeless, really. But now the media have got their teeth into it, we’ve got to be seen to be making an effort.’

‘Surely it won’t go on much longer? The story’s sure to die down, and you can get on with other cases.’

‘Eventually.’ Barkley sighed. ‘Of course, the best outcome would be if your woman turned out to be working with the traffickers. That would kill two birds with one stone, and get everybody a brownie point.’

‘And we do want them to stop killing pangolins,’ Thea said. ‘I really hope you can catch some of the ringleaders and make an example of them.’

Barkley sighed again. ‘We’re never going to get the 264top people – and even if we did, they’d get nowhere near what they deserve.’

‘Oh, well,’ said Thea helplessly. Then she straightened up. ‘I’ve got to find something to do for the rest of today, haven’t I? Any suggestions?’

‘I’d like to tell you to get yourself back home to that husband, but that would probably be a waste of breath. And there’s always the slight chance that you’ll turn something up here, most likely by accident. But it’s not for me to say. You’ll think of something.’

‘Right,’ said Thea, feeling small and silly. Other people always seemed so much more focused and purposeful than she ever did.

‘I’ve really got to go,’ the detective said. ‘I’ve been much longer than I should already. Have fun – and don’t get yourself killed, okay?’

Thea went back into the house in a chastened frame of mind. However you looked at it, she’d been rounded up and returned to base like a runaway sheep. Barkley hadn’t said anything of any significance to her – merely told her off for being a bad mother and worse wife. The whole day so far had been a complete waste, and there was little prospect of any improvement that she could see.

Dave and Sid were banging in the bathroom, taking out the old fittings. A dust sheet covered the floor from the foot of the stairs to the back door, but the stairs themselves were unprotected. Small grains of old plaster were scattered here and there. She decided to go up and have a look at it all.265

The old bath was standing on end on the landing outside the bedrooms, looking pathetic. When she peered round the door, she saw Sid hacking off the tiles that had covered the wall beside the bath. ‘You’ll have to do a lot of retiling,’ she said, making him jump. ‘Have you got the new ones?’ She liked tiles, the more colourful the better. ‘What are they like?’