They arrived at almost the same time. He parked alongside her just as she was climbing out of her car.

‘Shelby, wait!’

She ran to the door.

He followed as fast as he could.

She hesitated on the doormat, her hand on the doorhandle.

‘He won’t be here, he’ll be long gone,’ said Mackerel as he caught up, puffing.

‘You’re wrong. He’ll be here,’ said Shelby. She pushed inside, the hinges giving a heavy creak.

He followed her as she ran straight for her laptop, which sat on the waxed-timber dining room table. She logged in and opened up the security camera program. ‘The new cameras have been shut down. It’s all gone. All the footage.’ She slammed the laptop closed, eyes scanning the room. ‘He’s been here. Only Davey knows my password.’

Mackerel didn’t hesitate. ‘Let’s split up and search the house,’ he said, moving deeper inside. He knew exactly where to look.

But Shelby was too discerning. ‘Oh no, brother-in-law, I’m following you. You’ve got that look in your eye.’

Mackerel briefly considered trying to lose her, but he discarded that idea. He led her up the staircase, lined with photos of their good-looking family. They could’ve been straight out of a film. He moved through the master bedroom into their en suite.

‘He’s not here,’ said Shelby. But he didn’t move, and so neither did she.

The window was too small for anyone to get through, some of it taken up by an exhaust fan. Mackerel looked at the ceiling. There was no manhole, but there was a large extractor fan there too.

Davey’s bolthole.

Shelby followed his gaze. ‘You think he’s in the roof?’

‘See that small ring, welded onto the side of the casing?’ said Mackerel. He began looking around. ‘See if there’s some kind of a pole with a hook.’

‘You’ve got to be kidding me. That fan has never worked. Davey kept trying to reconnect it, but then he gave up and installed the one in the window.’

The two of them searched the bathroom until Mackerel found a mop that lived behind the door. Just as he’d thought: there was a plastic hook at the end of the handle.

It didn’t take much to hook the ring on the casing of the ceiling fan. Mackerel yanked and the whole thing dropped out, dangling from a heavy rope, interspersed with climbing knots, that disappeared up into the hole.

‘That’s it,’ said Shelby, already gripping the rope. ‘I’m gonna kill him.’

‘Wait —’

But she’d already started scurrying up, quickly disappearing into the bolthole.

Mackerel followed her up the rope, no mean feat given his weight and dodgy leg, but he couldn’t fit more than his head through such a small opening.