‘To remain positive? Yeah, I guess he might be. I wouldn’t like to think the worst either.’

It hadn’t been what Louisa meant. She was angling at it being that Oliver was lying to himself because he knew Melissa was dead.

‘Has he had any updates on the investigation?’

‘Yeah, he said the police updated him yesterday.’ Brian sipped at his coffee. His eyes were beginning to look less swollen now.

‘But he was here all day yesterday, I didn’t hear him take any phone calls.’ Louisa frowned, wondering why Oliver would lie about that.

‘Darling, you were asleep for most of the day, remember? He could have had people visit the house and you’d have been none the wiser.’

Louisa flinched. That thought hadn’t crossed her mind. She’d slept so solidly the day had whizzed by.

‘Right, of course. Okay, go on.’ She didn’t want to dwell on what might’ve gone on while she’d slept.

‘He told me there’d been no new leads. That the police had been very apologetic when they informed him that no one they’d interviewed from the party remembered seeing Melissa.’

‘They can’t have interviewed everyone though. Tiff only gave them her list on Thursday. Someone must’ve remembered seeing her, Brian.’

‘Don’t know. From what Oliver said, they didn’t sound optimistic.’

‘Poor woman – to be unremarkable in people’s minds – for them not to remember her being there, that’s awful.’

It was possible that people were saying they hadn’t seen Melissa because they didn’t want to get dragged into the investigation. Louisa thought it was unlikely though. Most of the time people couldn’t wait to be a part of something like that. A missing person would usually get people all bustling to tell their story – feel as though they were important. It was hard to believe that no one could remember seeing her that night. But then, if it hadn’t been for Louisa’s flashes of memory, she’d also be struggling to remember Melissa being there.

But had she actually seen Melissa’s face that night? It was still bothering Louisa that the woman standing by Oliver on the stairs might not have been his wife. As was the fact she hadn’t just asked Oliver outright whether it had been her. Like she was afraid the answer would cause more problems, or that he’d merely lie. Louisa’s mind was going round in circles. She had to find someone who remembered seeing Melissa on the night of her party, and who could recognise her from the photo the police had shown.