‘I heard it on the news, and I thought everyone would believe it was me. Want it to be me.’

Vera saw then that this had been a wasted trip. Lisa had thrown a sickie because she couldn’t face the accusations of her colleagues. ‘Look,’ she said, ‘I’ll arrest the killer, then they’ll have something else to talk about.’

‘Will you? You know who it is then?’

Christ, Vera thought, what can I say? ‘Another couple of days and it’ll all be over.’ She hoisted herself to her feet. Lisa’s mother was talking about tea, but Vera had a sort of promise to keep and she didn’t have the time. On the doorstep she paused and turned back to Lisa.

‘It was Danny Shaw doing the thieving, wasn’t it?’

Lisa nodded. ‘I saw him once in the staffroom. He didn’t know I was there.’

‘Why didn’t you tell anyone?’

She only shrugged, but Vera knew the answer anyway. Lisa had been brought up not to grass and, anyway, who would believe her?

Vera was getting into her car when her mobile rang. It was Joe Ashworth to say that Connie still hadn’t returned home and he was starting to worry.

Chapter Thirty

Joe Ashworth spent most of the day trying to track down Connie and Alice. First he went into town and found Frank, Connie’s ex, at work in the theatre close to the Quayside. Sarah had dragged Joe there to see a couple of plays before the arrival of the kids and he’d usually had a good time despite himself. And despite the arty clientele hanging around in the bar, posing before the show.

Frank was sitting outside with a group of other people smoking. He was dark and thin, with the sort of brooding good looks that Sarah went for. When Joe asked for a word in private, he stubbed out his cigarette and took Joe inside. They sat in the back row of the theatre itself. The stage was being dressed for a play and occasionally someone would wander on to shift a bit of furniture, but the stagehands took no notice of the two men in the audience.

‘So you haven’t heard from her?’ Ashworth couldn’t tell what the man beside him was thinking. He seemed to be preoccupied and Ashworth wondered if his mind was more on the production than on his ex-wife and daughter. Certainly his attention was fixed on the stage.

‘Not since I phoned her to tell her about Jenny Lister. Alice was going to come to stay with me and Mel this weekend.’

‘And you have no idea where she might be?’ Ashworth thought if his wife and kids had disappeared, he’d be a bit more concerned than Frank seemed to be.

‘She’s only been gone for a couple of hours, hasn’t she? She could be anywhere. Shopping. Coffee with a mate.’