He didn’t give her any feedback, not even the occasional nod. Just always that stare, probing, evaluating. This would not be an easy man to lie to.

‘So, is that anything to go on?’ she asked, feeling an unusually strong need for affirmation.

He made the slightest grimace, but not enough to indicate whether his sour look was because she’d given him nothing or because what she’d given him made him fear the worst.

‘I would suspect you know more than you’re saying,’ he said, which immediately made Jasmine feel both guilty and rattled. ‘It’s okay, I don’t mean you’re being deceitful. It’s just that in cases like this, there’s often things people are reluctant to say, maybe because they don’t want to sound daft or because they don’t think it’s relevant, or they don’t want to place suspicion on somebody unnecessarily. But the reason those very things are on their minds is often significant. So with that in mind, is there anything you think this could be related to? Maybe something Jim was working on, anything?’

‘I’ve been asking myself that all morning, and nothing’s leapt out. The recent files are all here, if you want to have a look. You’d probably know better than me if there’s any names in there that ring alarm bells. It’s fairly standard stuff, though. The only ones that stood out were a couple of missing-person cases, and they only stood out inasmuch as I wasn’t aware of them before. The main one was for this woman Anne Ramsay. Jim gave me the day off on Friday, and I think it was because he was working on this. He said it was sensitive. I don’t know anything about it, though.’

McDade nodded sagely, as much of a response as any of her information had elicited.

‘You know about it?’

‘Everybody knows about it who’s past a certain age. You’re a bit young yourself. Tragic story. She was effectively orphaned when she was about four. Her parents and her baby brother disappeared one day and us polis were never able to shed any light on the mystery. Now that she’s all grown up and presumably got the money to do so, she must have hired Jim to look into it again. We found nothing at the time, so it’s hard to imagine it would be any easier twenty-five or so years later.’

‘She was on the phone this morning, though. She said Jim had suggested he would have some news for her early this week.’

McDade gave a small, sad laugh, simultaneously sceptical and regretful.