He saw the twitch of the man’s cheek.

‘Deep down Violette knows he would never have taken his life in that way,’ Bish continued, ‘but sometimes she’s forced to believe what everyone says. That her dad left her to die up there on that cove. On her own. A four-year-old. We’re both fathers, Frank. We know we wouldn’t do that to our kids.’

Frank Gilbert looked away.

‘You know what I can’t understand about her theory, though?’ Bish said. ‘If someone murdered Violette’s father, why didn’t they go after her too? Just in case she’d seen something she shouldn’t have.’

Frank’s wife was looking at them from the front window. Bish stepped a little closer. ‘I think that in all the madness up on that rock, there was a voice of reason. I think Etienne LeBrac was supposed to get the bashing of his life. Maybe for his watch. Maybe because he’d been recognised. But somebody went too far. Perhaps Keith Hugh. In jail now for glassing his girlfriend? Or perhaps Alan, who had to prove himself to the younger lads.’

Frank Gilbert’s eyes were glued to the window now, where his family stared back at him. It was Bish’s experience that not many people managed to turn their lives around, but Frank seemed to have done so.

‘What do you think happened to that father, Frank?’

‘I think . . . I think he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.’ And Frank Gilbert walked into his home. A home, it seemed to Bish, that he would never let the truth take away from him.

As Bish was about to board the plane back to London, Elliot rang.

‘A Violette and Eddie sighting down south reported on Twitter. Grazier wants you on it sooner rather than later.’

‘Tell Grazier it’s probably a false alarm. She’s seen her mother, her uncle, and she’s now with her brother. She’s done everything she set out to do except go to Malham Cove, which she’ll do when she deems it safe. I say Grazier contacts the local police up here, gets them to be on the lookout.’

‘I wouldn’t be so sure about Malham Cove being the only destination. I know this kid —’

‘So you think you know Violette well, do you?’ Bish said, then checked himself. He couldn’t afford to lose it while surrounded by airport security.

‘I’m the one spending time in her home at the moment, Ortley. Me. Did you know that before they moved back to the Sarraf family home, Noor, Etienne and Violette lived in Cambridge? Or that the locals ransacked Joseph Sarraf’s home in Manchester all those years ago? The family memorabilia is scattered far and wide and Violette’s always said that she’ll go searching for it one day. And guess where the LeBracs spent their honeymoon? Edinburgh. All north. So I wouldn’t put all your eggs in the Malham Cove basket.’

‘I’m in Manchester now,’ Bish said, ‘so if the ever reliable Twitter decides she’s close by, let me know. But I’d bet my life on there being nothing and no one that’s getting her out of hiding for the time being.’