Ray crossed the room and the inspector descended the steps to allow his deputy entry. They used the torches on their phones to search the floor, just as Ray and Laura had in West Cork.

This cellar wasn’t empty, though. It was full of all the things that you’d expect to find in such a space. Tins of paint. Cardboard boxes of old crockery. Small pots of seedlings.

And in the corner, a bed.

‘That’s blood,’ Tom said, pointing to the congealed stain on an area of the floor that wasn’t cluttered with the detritus of Charlie Lane’s life. Ray leaned back against the steps, feeling overwhelmed. He put his hand on the wood and felt something small and round. He picked it up and shone his light at it. It was a button, like one you’d find on a cardigan.

‘She was here,’ he said, clasping the small object in his palm. ‘We found her phone outside.’

‘But where the hell is she now?’ said Tom. ‘We need to check the house and see if he has any other hiding places. Fiona Holland could be here too.’

CHAPTER 36

‘The burial site at Glendalough is in lockdown,’ Tom told Ray and Linda. ‘He’d be mad to bring her up there.’

The inspector had just ended a terse phone call with Joe Kennedy. The entire police force was on red alert, but Tom was still angry at Kennedy for not taking Laura’s disappearance seriously in the first place.

‘We’ll find her,’ he assured Tom, and even though the inspector disliked the man, the words had held some comfort. And at least he’d made the effort. The inspector had heard nothing from Sean, or from his own wife, for that matter, for most of the day. He’d eventually sent her a text asking what was going on and she’d sent a short reply just saying Sean couldn’t make it and she’d speak to him later, then asked if he’d found Laura. He typed ‘No’. He wasn’t as annoyed as the one word reply probably came across. He knew how tough it was for Sean at the moment. But he was upset that his old boss couldn’t even lift the phone and offer a few words of reassuring guidance.