‘Your mum,’ he said, ‘she’s grieving. And you won’t even give her the time of day. It’s shit. Do you not see that?’

‘No,’ she said quietly.

‘No?’

‘You’re wrong about her.’

‘I’m wrong,’ he said. ‘That’s it. I’m wrong?’

‘Yes.’

‘It’s terrible, what happened to Alex. It’s terrible. Obviously. And I’m sorry. But I tell you, it’s put you in a different light for me, girl. They’ve lost their son. We should be standing by them.’

‘Really? We?’

‘Yes.’

‘Your family loyalty is touching,’ she said. ‘And I can see you really need to stay on their good side, now you’ve named your price.’

‘Hey –’

‘But you haven’t got it in writing yet. All this money you think we need. So you should probably stay on my good side, too.’

The house was silent the next morning when Dan and Bea came down with their bags. The caterers had cleared away a lot, but not everything, and Liv had told them to come at noon to do the rest. Stacked boxes and washed cutlery lay waiting. Blessica was polishing a vase in the kitchen.

‘Good morning, Mr Dan. Morning, Miss Beatrice,’ she said.

‘Good morning, Blessica,’ said Bea. ‘How are you?’

‘Very well. Coffee machine hot for you. Early bird!’

‘Thank you,’ said Bea.

‘You go today, shame!’

Dan wasn’t in the mood for her. ‘Let’s just go and talk to Griff,’ he said. ‘Sort this out.’

Bea looked at him coldly. ‘Blessica, do you know where my father is?’

‘In the study. Very messy. I can’t clean in there.’ She laughed.

Bea knocked on the door.

‘Come!’ said Griff.

Dan pushed it open and let her through ahead of him. There were dirty glasses littering the coffee table, and the smell of the stale brandy, transporting her to the night before. The buff police file was where they had left it. Bea tried not to look. Griff was at his desk, with the curtains open behind him.

‘You’re up early,’ she said.

‘Been for my walk. Kick-starter.’

‘We’re going to go today,’ said Bea. ‘We’re just off.’

‘Back to Paligny?’

‘Yes. I’ll speak to the police when we get there, and see if there’s anything else we can do. Then if they say we can go, we’ll head off.’

‘Fine.’ He came round the desk, to hug her goodbye.

‘Before we go –’ said Dan. He looked at Bea, prompting her. ‘Bea?’

Griff looked from one to the other. ‘What’s afoot?’ he asked.

‘Shall we sit down?’ said Bea.

‘I don’t know,’ said Griff, ‘shall you?’

‘I know Dan told you yesterday, we want to buy a house,’ she said. ‘And I wanted to let you know, whatever we find, I want to match what we spend with donations to charity.’