‘It was her boyfriend. That’s why she moved over there. We only met him twice but we never liked him.’

‘But they split up anyway. About six months ago, I think. She moved into a bedsit with someone she didn’t even know.’

Peter Agnew shook his head in disbelief. About which part of the story Dani wasn’t quite sure.

‘Is there a reason you didn’t get along with him?’ Easton asked.

‘Because he was a lowlife piece of scum—’

‘Peter!’

‘Well he was! Thought he was the bees’ knees because he almost had a shot at a football career at one point, but he was just a loser. We were glad when she kicked him into touch. We thought maybe she was finally going to get herself straightened out. We begged her to come back home to live with us. She was distraught about the break-up. But typical, stubborn Grace, she was determined to do things her own way.’

Linda tutted and shot her husband an unimpressed look as though the stubbornness and their daughter’s poor decision-making was entirely his fault.

‘What’s his name?’ Dani asked. ‘The ex.’

‘Paul Reeve. We told the other detectives all about this too. They surely would have spoken to him by now.’

‘I’m sure they did. I’m just making sure we’re all aligned.’

Dani finished her coffee and indicated to Easton for him to do the same. They put their empty cups down on the oak worktop.

‘We won’t take any more of your time.’

‘I’ll see you out,’ Peter said, putting his own mug down.

‘It was nice to meet you, Mrs Agnew.’

She sniffed at that. ‘I don’t mean to be rude, DI Stephens, but you’re a homicide detective and I really hope we won’t ever meet again.’

Dani said nothing to that.

‘A penny for your thoughts?’ Dani asked Easton minutes later as they were driving back towards Birmingham.

Easton looked up from the papers he was holding and sighed as he thought about his answer.

‘Odd couple,’ was his only response.

‘I admit, they weren’t quite what I was expecting.’

‘Just goes to show, money really doesn’t buy happiness.’

‘Still, if they offered me fifty million I wouldn’t turn it down.’

‘True. What do you reckon about this Paul Reeve?’

‘That Missing Persons should speak to him, if they haven’t already. We only went to the Agnews to see if we could ID our Jane Doe. It’s not our job to find Grace.’

Easton huffed and shuffled through the papers he was holding for a few seconds.

‘Apparently mis-pers did contact Reeve. Looks like nothing came of it.’