She hears the sound of children laughing upstairs. Jackie calls up to them, demanding they get ready, as Archer scans the room. There is a pink crate of children’s toys at the foot of a cream vinyl sofa. Behind that is a sideboard displaying a range of animal ornaments. She notices a laptop on a side table displaying a slideshow of photographs. There are shots of what looks like friends and family including pictures of two young twins who she assumes are the children upstairs. Archer narrows in on the screen to a selfie of Jackie and Elaine holding up shot glasses. They are together inside a nightclub, both of them made up and dressed in similar tight black outfits, pouting suggestively at the camera.

Jackie appears carrying two large brown mugs in the shape of owls.

‘Here you go.’ She hands across a steaming owl.

‘Thank you.’

‘When was the last time you saw Elaine?’

‘It was last week. We had a coffee together in town. I was supposed to babysit Jordan the day after because she had a date. But I couldn’t make it. I had flu and the kids were unwell and had to cancel.’

‘When was this?’

‘Thursday night.’

A child’s voice calls from upstairs. ‘Mummy, Poppy is using your iPad and you told her not to.’

‘Poppy, what did I tell you?’ Jackie shouts. In her normal pitch she continues, ‘I don’t like them using the Internet unsupervised. There’s just so much horror since poor Elaine and those other women . . .’ Jackie leaves the sentence hanging as if she can’t bring herself to finish it. She edges the pink crate out of the way with her foot. ‘Please sit down.’

Archer sits on the edge of the sofa, Jackie across from her.

‘Do you know who she was going on a date with?’

‘She wouldn’t tell me.’ Jackie cradles her mug, holding it close to her face. ‘I still can’t get my head around it. The twins are distraught. Poppy especially. She loved Elaine. Everyone did. Poor Jordan. He must be devastated.’

‘Could Jordan be with his father?’

‘It’s possible, but unlikely. He never took much interest in him, poor little sod.’

‘Where would Jordan be now?’

Jackie pales. ‘Oh my God, is he missing too?’

‘We don’t know anything yet. I will look into Jordan’s whereabouts and his father’s.’

‘I hope Frank is looking after him.’

‘Do you know anyone who would want to hurt Elaine?’

‘Frank springs to mind.’

‘Her husband?’

‘Yeah. He was always knocking her about. Jordan too. I don’t know why she put up with it. For Jordan’s sake, I suppose. He loved his dad, despite his dad not seeming to care about him.’

‘Did she ever talk to you about Frank’s abuse?’

‘Yeah. He was dead jealous, especially when we started spending more time together.’

‘Why was that?’