Rachel looked at the photo of Gary and Arabella Wakefield a while longer before handing the phone back to Ade.

‘Maybe it’s not as odd as we think,’ she said. ‘Adam told us he arranges regular meetings for all those whose lives were affected by the crash. Her life was as much affected as anyone else’s. It’s probably how they met.’

‘Why didn’t either of them say anything when we spoke to them earlier?’ Ade said.

‘Arabella was the subject of a lot of press scrutiny at the time,’ Rachel said. ‘You can’t blame her for wanting to put all that behind her.’

But even as she said this, Rachel couldn’t shake off the sense that she was missing something important.

‘I know we have to wait until the post-mortem’s done,’ she said, ‘but I’d bet my last pound that this is going to turn into a murder investigation. If that happens, it will be my first case as SIO. I’m bloody terrified, Ade. Although if you dare say that to anyone else I’ll get you taken off this case faster than you can finish those chips.’

‘My lips are sealed.’ Ade grinned. ‘Besides, I’m too scared of you to ever say or do anything you’ve told me not to.’

‘Good,’ Rachel said, knowing Ade wasn’t being serious. In the two months since they’d been working together, Ade Benjamin had never once shown the slightest sign of being scared of anyone or anything.

‘They must have hated being called lucky,’ Ade said. ‘I mean, sure, they were lucky they didn’t die. But it’s hardly luck to be involved in a plane crash, is it? They were injured too. Clodagh suffered serious brain injuries. Nick Gilbert had to learn to walk again, and he was left with that terrible scar. There’s nothing lucky about that.’

‘I’m sure they do hate it,’ Rachel said, remembering her conversation with Clodagh earlier.

‘I read a newspaper article about them last year,’ Ade said. ‘It must have been the four-year anniversary of the crash, I guess. It was all about the psychological effects of surviving something like that.’

‘PTSD?’

‘Yeah, but not just that. Post-traumatic stress disorder is common, as you’d expect. But something called post-traumatic growth is equally common although you never hear people talking about that. It’s when people experience positive change that comes from struggling with a major life crisis or traumatic event. Apparently, after a trauma some people develop a new understanding of themselves and the world they live in, and they’re better able to work out how to live their life to the full.