He had a performance appraisal meeting with the faculty head. He’d meant to set the alarm but must have forgotten. Mary just laughed as Grant darted off to the en suite shower. He washed quickly and was out a few minutes later with a towel wrapped around his waist. Mary, still only wearing her thin silk nighty that didn’t extend much further than her backside, was standing by the window, looking out.

‘What is it?’ Grant asked as he moved over to the bedside drawer for some clean boxers.

Mary turned to him, a perplexed look on her face.

‘Did you see Julie yesterday?’

‘Julie Francis? No. Why would I have seen her?’ Grant asked, realising belatedly that he sounded defensive.

Mary tutted. ‘I didn’t mean like that, Steven. If I thought you were screwing our neighbour’s wife I’d have chopped your balls off already.’

‘Just as well it never crossed my mind then.’

‘Ha, yeah. But seriously, I’ve not seen her at all since they had that bust-up. When she stormed off in his car.’

Grant went over to the window and looked out too. There was definitely no sign of Francis’s prized Range Rover on the drive, and come to think of it, he hadn’t seen it yesterday morning when he went to work, or when he came home in the afternoon. Mary moved away from the window to fetch her dressing gown.

‘Maybe he’s got a job after all,’ Grant said. ‘And he’s already gone out.’

‘No. He’s in. I saw him walk past the window a few moments ago.’

Grant rolled his eyes at that. Was Francis ever more than a metre away from a window? Though he and Mary were both snooping right at that moment too, so who was he to judge really?

When had he and Mary become such nosy sods anyway?

‘Maybe she left him,’ Grant said.

‘Yeah, maybe.’

‘Have you not got her number? Send her a text.’

‘I did. After that fight. No answer.’

That did sound odd, Grant had to admit.

‘Well, if you’re that interested then just go over and ask if she’s in. Say you want to get your nails painted again.’

‘Yeah, I think I might. It just seems strange that she’s disappeared like that.’

‘Hello, what’s this?’ Grant said when a Ford Mondeo slowed to a stop outside their front gates.

‘What?’ Mary said, coming back to Grant’s side.

A man and a woman stepped from the car. Both were smartly dressed. The woman was short and the unmistakable bump under her jacket showed she was expecting.

‘Police,’ Mary said.