Fergus stood up, reaching for the wall then fumbling his way to the exit, cursing as he went. Turned out that being dead was just as shitty as being alive. He left the woman and the girl in the dark.

Chapter Twenty

They sat in Connie’s hotel room, Baarda at the desk, her on the floor, and stared at photographs. On one wall, Connie had printed out a list of all the places Angela went regularly – supermarket, doctor, dentist, school, friends and family, bank. On the opposite wall the same had been done for Elspeth. There was no crossover. These were women at different ends of the financial, educational and social spectra.

Yet, the photos of the two of them were remarkably similar. Not their faces or their clothing styles, just the types of photos. With the kids on a beach, at a playground, a horse ride, a play centre. First day of school. Family Christmas, Easter egg hunt, Halloween. They both kept themselves trim, ate healthy food. They each valued friendship highly and were careful not to drink too much. Neither smoked or took drugs. Each appeared to be the perfect wife.

‘What did you call this?’ Baarda asked.

‘A frantic information grab,’ Connie said. ‘We’ve hit a dead end, so we go back to all the information at once. We have certain links already. The key is that the same man was at the scene of both Angela’s murder and Elspeth’s abduction. No other crime scene similarities. But there’s something we’re missing. Like they both love ballet, or have the same favourite soccer team.’

‘Football,’ Baarda corrected.

‘If you knew what I meant, you didn’t need to correct me. The point is that he found them, stalked them, chose them. So there’s a link. It’s in here somewhere.’ She rearranged a pile of emails from the previous twelve months sent by each woman. ‘What keywords did the technical team search for when they were comparing the emails and messages?’

‘They went through everything including dates, place names, people, products, even online purchases. There was no crossover between the two women that we can find. If they were in the same place on the same day, it was a one-off and a coincidence. We can’t place them anywhere together. No mutual friends.’

‘Phone records?’ Connie asked.

‘Both landline and mobile. None of the same numbers were called by both women.’

‘That’s it, I’m calling down for room service,’ Connie sighed. ‘What’ll you take?’

‘Anything with salmon,’ Baarda said, pinning a map to the wall with a solid and a dotted line on it. Solid for Angela’s known movements on the day of her death, dotted for Elspeth’s the day she disappeared.

Connie ordered and put down the phone. ‘Tell me about your first love. I’m guessing … university. Am I right?’

‘I thought we were here to work,’ he said.