Bish tried very hard not to be fascinated with this family. Two siblings, one who had completed a doctoral thesis, the other with a lucrative football contract. Up until the Brackenham bombing they were an immigrant success story.

A guard stood outside the now familiar interview room on Sunday morning. Noor LeBrac was already seated, her suspicious eyes following him from the door to the chair before her. One thing was certain: Violette’s disappearance was clearly affecting her. There were dark circles around her eyes, sinking deep. She swallowed constantly, as if trying to keep down the bile in her throat.

‘I’m presuming you know that Violette’s in the UK,’ Bish said, sitting opposite her.

‘Whether they’re here or in France makes no difference.’ She looked away and he felt the sting of her disdain.

‘We’ve got a better chance of finding them now,’ he said.

‘We?’ she demanded. ‘We who, Ortley? The people whose fault this was in the first place?’

She shifted in her seat. ‘You thought I’d be grateful, didn’t you? Do you honestly believe everything’s fine just because Violette and Eddie are in the UK? The only safe place for my daughter is with her grandparents in Australia. Etienne’s father will put a bullet through anyone who’s a threat to Violette.’

‘Then help me find her, Noor,’ he said patiently. ‘When was the last time you heard from her, apart from the postcard?’

She made a sound of disbelief. ‘Are we really doing this again?’

‘We’re doing this until something you say triggers a clue to where they are. I’m not accusing you of holding back information, I’m just saying I may be able to see something you can’t.’

She thought about that for a while, then sat forward in her seat. Bish took up his notebook.

‘I spoke to her three weeks ago when she supposedly left for her Duke of Edinburgh camp.’

‘Did she take part in Duke of Ed before this year?’ he asked.

‘Yes. She was going for her silver award so that next year she can be part of a residential project in Nepal and get her gold. Etienne was involved with the Duke of Ed Award when he was at school, and she’s determined to do anything her father did.’

Bish heard pride in her voice.

‘It was a short conversation,’ LeBrac said. ‘I have a two-quid phone card that doesn’t go far with international calls. Violette told me it would be the last time I’d speak to her for a couple of weeks. That I believed. The hikes are in deep bushland. Part of the program is that they have to rough it. She said, “I love you, Mummy. We’ll talk when I’m back.”’

It gave Bish a sinking feeling to realise that Noor LeBrac spoke to her daughter on the other side of the world, from behind bars, more often than he spoke to Bee.

‘Nothing strange about the conversation?’ he asked. ‘You didn’t sense her lying?’

He waited. On her face, yet another expression he couldn’t read. Or perhaps didn’t want to.