He trailed off. The man in front of him looked like Sean, but Tom had never seen anybody’s features change so much in the space of a few days.

His old friend was … haunted. There was no other word for it.

Tom found himself sitting on the chair beside him. He didn’t think his legs could support him for what was coming.

‘What’s happened?’ he asked, an audible tremor in his voice.

Sean put down the cup.

‘I couldn’t call you,’ he said. His voice was raspy. It sounded like it was coming from under water. ‘It’s not that I didn’t want to. I just couldn’t. Not with this case you’re dealing with. And I couldn’t answer your calls, because if I’d told you, you would have dropped everything. Then Louise came over and told me what had happened with Laura. I’m glad she’s safe. I’m sorry I couldn’t help.’

The inspector shook his head.

He felt like whatever was coming, once said, would leave the world changed utterly.

‘June went missing last night,’ Sean continued. ‘I woke up and she wasn’t in the bed with me. I went downstairs and found the front door open and the car gone. She’d left a note. It said she was going shopping. She didn’t come back.’

‘Christ,’ Tom said. His hand rose to his mouth. Whatever he’d been expecting, it wasn’t this. All day they’d been looking for Laura and that whole time … Poor Sean.

‘June is missing? Jesus. Right, let me splash water on my face and I’ll come with you. Who’s looking for her? Your kids … but you must have told our lot as well surely?’

Sean shook his head.

‘Then come on, we’ll get it sorted. We’ll find her, Sean.’

Tom stood up, his tiredness vanquished. Adrenalin pulsed through his body once more.

‘Tom,’ Louise said. She grabbed his hand. Her voice shook. ‘They found her.’

The inspector stared at his wife and looked back to Sean.

‘I don’t understand.’

‘They think she might have had an aneurism.’ The words sounded like they were coming from somewhere else. Not from Sean’s mouth. ‘She’d been going the right way for the supermarket. Residual memory. The same memory that enabled her to drive the car. She drove straight into a tree. She died instantly.’

His voice cracked.

Tom sank back onto the chair, a ball of pain threatening to explode in his chest. He dropped his head into his hands.