Mac frowned. ‘That’s odd, I would have thought all his clients were local to him.’ He considered it for a moment. ‘I suppose he can be a bit uptight, and he’s a bit of a loner, but he’s not a bad sort of bloke. I remember Luke telling me they were close when they were kids, but—’

‘Really?’ She felt a fresh flash of surprise. They’d certainly never seemed particularly close. She hadn’t given it much thought before; not having any siblings herself, it wasn’t a relationship of which she had experience. She’d assumed the distance between the two of them was due to the five-year age gap, Tom’s habit of talking down to his younger brother, or their different personalities.

‘Yeah,’ Mac went on. ‘From what Luke said, all three of the kids were pretty tight before Emily left. I don’t know what happened, though. Like I said, Tom checked out of the family after she disappeared, and Luke and his parents became quite wrapped up in each other. Maybe that caused a bit of a rift.’ He glanced at her. ‘I always got the feeling it upset Luke; I think he wanted to be closer to his brother growing up, but Tom didn’t want to know.’

Clara considered this. How hurtful that must have been, to be rejected by his older brother, especially after losing his only other sibling so young. She realized that Luke had never talked about his relationship with Tom and she hadn’t thought to ask. Uncomfortably she wondered now what else she might not know about her boyfriend, what other sorrows Luke might have been hiding, behind his cheerful smile.

When Clara and Mac arrived at the station she was struck by the sense of urgency and purpose in the air. There were a number of new officers to meet, members of the Major Incident Team, including a family liaison officer and press officer, as well as Detective Chief Inspector Judith Carter, a heavy set, rather austere-looking woman who explained to Clara that she was the senior investigating officer on the case, Anderson keeping back respectfully as they talked. Every one of the officers she met was friendly, reassuring and grateful for her assistance, but still she felt entirely overwhelmed. Her natural compulsion to be helpful, to do the right thing, combined with the knowledge that, if she messed it up, Luke’s life was at stake, made her heart pound faster and faster, a thick lump of anxiety building in her chest.