I wander into the kitchen and turn on the kettle. As I’m not working the Saturday rota today, my plan is to do a bit of tidying up, then cycle into the village and put up a few posters for the Green Fields’ fundraiser next month then come back and have a quiet evening watching the National Geographic Channel with a bottle of wine and box of chocolates.

I’m watching a David Attenborough documentary about the African savannah, my hand hovering over the box as I deliberate between an orange crème and a dark chocolate truffle, when the phone rings.

“Hello,” says a male voice. “Is that Jane Hughes?”

“Speaking.”

“Hello, Jane, it’s DS Armstrong, from CID. We haven’t spoken before.”

“No, no we haven’t.”

“Sorry it’s so late but it’s about your case. I’ve been chasing up some of the names PC Barnham gave me, people you thought might have a grudge against you.”

“Right.”

“And you thought that several of the people were un-contactable because they’d disappeared, possibly feared dead. Is that right?”

“Yes,” I say as my heart quickens in my chest, “that’s right.”

“Well, the thing is, Jane” – he pauses – “I’ve managed to track one of them down. A Leanne Cooper. I managed to trace her to the Royal Cornhill up in Aberdeen. It’s a psychiatric hospital, she was a patient there.”

“Leanne? Leanne Cooper?”

“Yes.”

“But she … she died in the fire at Ekanta Yatra.”

“Apparently not. She’s been a patient at the Royal Cornhill Hospital for the last four or five years. She left three months ago. I’ve been trying to track her down, but I haven’t had much luck. You gave me an address for her mother but I couldn’t get any information out of her, either. Is there anyone else Leanne might stay with? Anyone she might contact? Can you think?”

“Um …” I rack my brain to try and think of someone, anyone Leanne might contact, but she was always so private about her life. “She had a boyfriend, years ago, before we went to Nepal. I think his name was Gerrit but he moved back to Holland. She used to work at a beauty salon called MeTime, doing massage. You could try there? Or Al, Alexandra Gideon, but I spoke to her only this week and she didn’t mention anything about Leanne.”

“Alexandra Gideon? You spoke to one of the people that you’ve listed as having a grudge against you?”

“Well, yes, she rang me. But I never really suspected that—”

“Do you think that was wise, Jane, during the course of an investigation?”

“I—”

“Never mind.” There’s a weary tone to his voice. “I just thought I’d update you on what we know so far. I’ll look into the business you mentioned, and the ex-boyfriend. Everything okay? No more messages, no other communications?”

“No, nothing like that.”