Outside the hospital, Sarraf stumbled to the side of the gravel driveway and threw up in a flowerbed. Bish and Attal watched through a cloud of Attal’s cigarette smoke as Sarraf wiped his mouth and stood up straight, took a deep breath.

Attal put out his cigarette and went to leave, then changed his mind, turned back, and demanded something of Sarraf.

Sarraf shook his head. ‘Dites-moi pourquoi?’ he wanted to know.

The only word Bish understood was ‘why?’ ‘What’s he’s asking?’ he asked Sarraf. He looked at Attal. Although the Frenchman was reluctant to speak, he didn’t walk away.

‘He wants to know if I’ve heard of a man named Ahmed Khateb,’ Sarraf said. ‘An Algerian. He was the driver of Attal’s daughter’s bus.’

Bish looked back at Attal. ‘Pourquoi?’

Attal hesitated before responding.

‘Because Khateb’s nowhere to be found,’ Sarraf translated.

The French captain walked off to his car. Sitting on the hood was a tall girl around Bee’s age, all lanky arms and legs. Marianne Attal, Bish guessed. Rust-coloured hair untidily pulled back in a ponytail. Prominent facial features. She wore denim shorts, cowboy boots and attitude. When her father approached she fired out something rapid at him. It gave Bish some relief that the French were getting as much of a hammering from their kids as he was. Until she jumped from the hood and reached her father, linking her arm in his.

France 1. England 0.

The girl got into the car, staring back at Bish with a healthy glare of dislike. She looked shifty. Bish had received two warnings about her so far. Was her father covering up for her? Did she know something about the bombing? Was that the reason for Attal being taken off the case?

Walking back to his own car, Bish felt a firm grip on his upper arm. Sarraf.

‘Make sure someone tells my sister it’s not Violette.’

Bish tried to shrug free. ‘Someone will,’ he said.

‘No. You make sure,’ Sarraf said forcefully. ‘We made a pact. If something ever happened to Violette, we’d end it.’

Bish felt a shudder go through him. Hadn’t he made the same vow on his way to Calais last week? He finally pulled free and got into his car, but Sarraf was hammering at the window.

‘You make sure someone tells Noor that Violette’s not the dead girl in the water.’

When Grazier rang for an update Bish said, ‘A name’s come up. Ahmed Khateb, driver of the French bus.’

‘Motive?’

‘Attal hasn’t let on much, but it seems Khateb’s disappeared.’

‘Then we’ve got a suspect?’

‘Looks like it.’

‘Anything else?’

‘Sarraf wants you to let his sister know it wasn’t Violette’s body, sooner rather than later.’

‘You can go see her as soon as you’re back,’ Grazier said. ‘LeBrac will be grateful to the bearer of good news and you may be able to find out more from her.’

‘The prison won’t appreciate us turning up whenever we want,’ Bish said.