3

Lucy is sitting at her desk at the end of the day, thinking how lucky James Scott is to have a mother like Pat. She has seen so many people go through this ordeal alone. Despite all her efforts, Pat hadn’t been able to get hold of her other son, Michael, but Lucy has still made some good progress. Her call to Air India has been fruitful, in that they were able to establish that he had arrived in India, at Kochi International Airport, on 23 July, and then on 15 August had flown to New Delhi. He is due to fly back to the UK on 16 September from Kathmandu. The UK immigration office also confirmed that he had departed from London Heathrow on 22 July and was still out of the country. Unless Michael Scott is some sort of international criminal who is able to slip through borders undetected, he is out of the picture. Not that they had ever seriously considered him a suspect, but it was good to be able to eliminate him unequivocally.

That left Irene, Victor and Andy Hall, three very unlikely candidates; James Scott, also increasingly doubtful; and the unknown visitor. Unless it had been a random attack, which would go against all the evidence they have so far, Lucy knows they will eventually track their man down. Somewhere – as they unravel Nicky Scott’s life, or in the material yielded by the meticulous search of the house and its surroundings – they will find a clue.

A few minutes later she is proved right when her musing is interrupted by the sight of John marching across the room towards her desk.

‘They’ve found something,’ he says. ‘I’ve just had a call from Karen. One of the residents in Gandon Road presented himself at the crime scene just now and said he had found a suspicious item in his dustbin.’

‘What is it?’

‘A torch, one of those big black Maglites. It was wrapped inside a tea towel. When he saw what it was, he put it back again.’

‘Hopefully he was the only person who touched it.’

‘I think so. Anyway, it’s been removed now. But it sounds like a possibility.’

‘That’s good news,’ says Lucy.

‘Yeah, it’s definitely a start. Oh yes, the other thing I meant to tell you is that I had a call from some guy at the Evening Standard. He knows who the house belongs to and that a body was removed from it, but that’s about all at the moment. I stalled him, but I think we might have to make an announcement tomorrow, or Monday at the latest. We’ll obviously have to run it past James, but now that all the family have been informed I can’t see any advantage in waiting, and it might get us some more leads.’

‘I agree,’ says Lucy. ‘We don’t want them writing some rubbish.’

‘Actually, our biggest problem is that the papers will be full of the anniversary of Princess Di’s death so our story will probably get buried.’

‘That’s true. I’d completely forgotten about that.’

‘You go home and draft something,’ John says, ‘and I’ll call you in the morning.’