‘Why investigate Etienne’s death now?’ he asked. ‘In the middle of everything that’s happening.’

‘Because of you,’ she said. ‘You accused Etienne of not being there for his daughter. In all this, I’d forgotten him. He met Noor when Jimmy and I were five years old. They were twenty. We all adored him because he was such an idiot. So much fun.’ She laughed. ‘He wasn’t ambitious. Not like Noor. And years later, when they had Violette, he was a fantastic father. Noor and Jimmy had done whatever they wanted all their lives, made up the rules along the way, but not Etienne. Nasrene was strict and Etienne worked that farm with his father with discipline. He would never have left Violette up there on that cove alone. Never. What have I been fucking doing all these years not challenging that? I was too busy making money for the firm, watching couples who used to call each other poppet quibble over their Pomeranians. What kid says, When I grow up I want to be a divorce lawyer?’

She swallowed hard. ‘That pile is Etienne,’ she said, pointing. ‘That pile is Noor. I’m trying to prioritise.’

‘Why Noor?’

‘Violette hasn’t come here just to take Eddie on a history tour of their lives. She’s here to continue what her father started all those years ago. Getting her mother out of jail.’

Rachel’s theory again.

‘And she wants you to help her?’ he asked.

Layla nodded. ‘She says it’s what Etienne would have wanted. But finding out what happened to him is probably a thousand times easier than working out a case for Noor.’

Bish crouched down beside her. ‘What have you got?’

She picked up the map of Yorkshire and laid it out on the coffee table. ‘I drew a radius of twenty miles around Malham Cove on all sides,’ she told him, ‘and contacted every police station within that area, asking for every crime committed the week of Etienne’s death. In Skipton, on the day after he died, three teens were arrested. In the pub the night before, one of them was heard saying, “We saw that Aussie. The terrorist’s husband.” ’

Bish stared at a front-page article Layla had printed. A photo of Etienne LeBrac. Laughter in his eyes, a quirk to his lips. An older version of Eddie.

‘Someone in the pub was disturbed by their words and called the cops the next day,’ Layla continued. ‘It was dismissed as drunken talk, and the three kids were charged with loitering and under-age drinking, as well as being in possession of stolen goods.’

‘Not Etienne’s watch?’ Bish asked.

‘Not Etienne’s watch. But the police found souvenirs from the gift shop at Malham Cove. Those thugs were there that night. Now I’m trying to work out how to take this further.’ She pointed to the Noor pile. ‘That’s the too hard basket. I literally don’t know where to start. The 2005 appeal didn’t get off the ground because of the London bombings. The 2010 appeal didn’t because there was a general election that year, and then a hung parliament. The legal world was being cautious. There really wasn’t much work done to make these appeals happen. I’m going to have to start from scratch.’