Sharon laughed; it came from somewhere and petered out the moment it started. ‘I don’t even know! Sums up that man at the moment, his state of mind.’

‘Do you know where his car is?’ he said.

‘No. Don’t you? Wasn’t it there with him?’

‘It wasn’t. We have a silver Mercedes C Class registered to him, is that still the one he uses?’

‘I … I mean yeah, it must be. It’s leased for another year but I don’t know how he can be affording it. It must be at his hotel then.’

‘How would he be paying for a room? Is there anything on your bank statement to give us a clue where he—’

‘He thought of that. He has his own account. He never really used it but he’s been transferring the money from our joint account to pay for his hotel room. It’s a small fortune, to be honest. He told me that was why he was doing it that way. He said he didn’t want me just turning up unannounced, but what he really meant is he didn’t want me to see him in a state.’

‘A state?’ the woman officer said while her colleague sat back like he knew exactly what she meant. She said it anyway.

‘Pissed. He’s always liked a drink but socially. In the last couple of years I’ve seen a different man when the pressure’s on, a man who has started using alcohol as a way to escape. It doesn’t work, of course it doesn’t – if it did I might do the same. That would be easy, wouldn’t it? You let something like that happen to your daughter but it’s OK, you can just forget it for the evening!’ Her anger rose up but it was quickly replaced by exhaustion.

‘Again, Sharon, I can’t imagine.’ His tone was softer too now. It annoyed her.

‘Do you have children?’ Sharon snapped.

‘Two girls. Younger than Callie.’

‘Then you can imagine. Those two girls when they’re fifteen, someone getting hold of them without you knowing, manipulating them to send photos of themselves, to be indecent, to lose their innocence, to be thrust into the world of sick adults, for them to be so damaged that they just close down. I had no idea of the pain that girl was in until the phone call telling me she was being resuscitated on the ground in the park. Maybe you can imagine!’ Sharon’s voice was now just a hiss.

She got a reaction; the officer’s jaw flexed. It was slight but she could tell a man struggling with a mental image.