‘Noor LeBrac had time to make the bomb,’ said Bish. ‘And she was convicted because she confessed. Violette was travelling on a full itinerary with a large group.’

‘And she shared a room with your daughter,’ Elliot said. ‘Not exactly the freedom to build a bomb. Although you and I did in first form.’

Elliot held up his left index finger, minus the tip. Bish remembered the event vividly.

‘We’d really like to know where Violette was on the night before the bombing, Chief Inspector Ortley,’ Grazier said. ‘Can your daughter shed light on that?’

‘Why not ask Crombie?’ Bish said.

‘According to Charlie Crombie, Violette wasn’t with him. According to Crombie’s roommate, Crombie wasn’t in his room.’

‘So apparently half the tour bus was missing from their beds that night.’

‘Not quite half, Ortley,’ Grazier said, looking him in the eye. ‘Five, in actual fact.’

Bish didn’t like where this was going, and he was now down to ‘Ortley’, which meant the niceties were over.

‘Aren’t you going to ask who the others without an alibi are?’ Grazier asked.

Bish leaned forward in his seat. They were going to drag Bee into this. Now he was seething, blinding headache in this damn sunshine and all. Elliot poured a glass of water and handed it to him.

‘Sit back, Ortley. You’re scaring the boss.’

Grazier didn’t seem the sort to be scared by anyone or anything. ‘Your only suspects are teenagers missing from their cabins?’ Bish asked him.

‘I don’t recall saying Violette or the kids were suspects,’ Grazier said. ‘I simply want to know where they were the night before the bomb. Could you find that out for me, Chief Inspector Ortley, you being one of the fathers?’

Bish bit his tongue. He didn’t want to admit the next fact out loud. Not in front of Elliot.

‘I’m probably not the right person to be playing Chief Inspector right now.’

‘We’re not Scotland Yard,’ Grazier said. ‘We don’t give a rat’s arse what your suspension was about. All I’m saying is that we’d be happy for you to go out there and continue being who you were in France.’

Bish presumed ‘No thanks’ wasn’t an option. Grazier was eyeing him with that look he had. Elliot was wolfing down his eggs and bacon, one arm protectively around his plate. The boarding school fear that someone was going to steal your food.

‘You and I share a few theories,’ Grazier said. ‘If Violette does have a target on her back, it just got a bit bigger, thanks to the media and that moron who locked her in a cupboard. Those kids are running from us. We’d better find them alive.’

‘Then what’s stopping you?’

‘The parents we’ve spoken to are pissed off at the embassy staff for taking their time getting to the campsite. They believe Downing Street should have sent someone as soon as it happened. They’re not exactly being chatty with anyone who works for the government. Most of them claim that the only person who did anything was Chief Inspector Bish Ortley. We want you talking to those families. One of the kids on that tour might have a clue to where Violette and Eddie are heading.’