Hattie met us outside the castle as everyone else traipsed into the boot room to de-Barbour. ‘Jake tracked down the Ghosts’ van. Burned and abandoned.’ I braced myself. ‘No body inside. But the parkland where it was found is expansive. I’ve got police combing the area.’ Hattie put a hand to my shoulder. ‘If Robin’s there we’ll find him.’

I chewed my lip.

‘Cameron followed Peppa all afternoon. She met with a woman in a playground at four p.m.’

‘Tell me it was Alice Lim from the Embassy?’ A confirmed sighting of the two of them together would be the proof we needed that Lim had been covertly funnelling intel on Peng to Peppa through the dry cleaners.

Hattie shook his head. ‘Sadly not. The woman was blonde, mid to late twenties. We’ve run her image through all our databases and haven’t got a hit. Cameron couldn’t get close enough to hear anything. She said the sounds of screaming children were unbearable.’

‘Did the woman have any kids with her?’ I asked.

‘No, none. They spent fifteen minutes talking and then left.’

Meeting a friend without kids in a playground didn’t make sense.

‘This woman could be an intermediary. If Lim and Peppa have been using the dry cleaners to exchange information all this time, they aren’t going to risk being seen together in person.’

‘Cameron is now following the mystery woman. Jake is on Peppa. We find one solid link to the Tenebris Network on either of them and we’ll bring them in.’

*

By the time I reached the second floor of the expansive castle it was hard to get my bearings. I was following Frederick towards the bedrooms.

‘Peng’s bedroom is down that corridor on the right. Her bodyguard is in the room next door. He’s outside Peng’s door keeping guard.’ Everyone had gone straight from the boot room to dress for the evening ahead. ‘I’m in here.’ He motioned to the door next to us. ‘And you’re just one along.’

‘Right.’ I looked from his door to mine. ‘Great.’

Frederick checked his watch. ‘We’ve got less than an hour before drinks start. See you down there.’

I nodded.

I opened the door to my bedroom. Antique furnishings and a small four-poster bed greeted me. Here I was again. On a mini-break away from my daughter. With a man who wasn’t my husband.