‘Have you told him it’s over?’

Caroline looked away again and moved the cup in front of her face, as if trying to hide behind it. ‘Sort of.’

‘You have to say something; it’s not fair to him otherwise.’

‘I wrote him a letter and left. I said I was coming here and asked him to leave me for a few days.’

Jessica offered a thin smile. ‘I guess that’s better than a text message.’

Caroline laughed a little. ‘I feel like a right bitch.’

Jessica wanted to say something comforting but, after a short pause, the best she could manage was, ‘Come on; let’s find you some dry clothes.’

The rest of the evening was spent watching television and not saying much. Caroline clearly didn’t want to talk any further, while Jessica still had the case on her mind. She read through Toby Whittaker’s file a couple of times, looking to see if there was anything she might have missed. As she read, she could only come up with more questions about how Toby and Isaac could be connected and whether the anonymous driver was the person who had taken both boys. She hadn’t had a useable photograph to show to Harry, Kayla Hutchings or Daisy Peters. They would look back into Simon Hill and Ian Sturgess in the absence of any other leads, while also trying to identify the driver.

Managing the situation and not causing a panic was still the main priority but they were hoping someone who matched the driver’s description would be reported missing by a concerned relative who didn’t know what he was up to.

The two women shared Jessica’s double bed and Caroline was up early the following day to get to work. She worked for an advertising agency in the city centre and was determined to keep some semblance of a normal life. Jessica hugged her as her friend left in the morning, before giving Toby Whittaker’s file one last read.

Cole and Reynolds were going to see the start of the dig for a body at the site where they had found the clothes. Even though they didn’t necessarily expect to find anything straight away, it was a significant symbolic act. Jessica was going to visit Toby’s mother, Lucy. Someone had already told her they believed they had found clothes belonging to her son but, with the case on the brink of being reopened, someone had to formally speak to her – even if her memory was likely to be hazy fourteen years after the event.

Reynolds had organised things the previous evening and the plan was for Jessica to meet DS Louise Cornish at Lucy’s house that morning. The two sergeants shared an office and, after a rocky start to their relationship, just about got on. It wasn’t that they disliked each other; they just had nothing in common. While Jessica still lived day to day, Cornish was efficient and committed to her job, as well as being married with two children at school. The sergeant was currently involved with a case in which a string of burglaries seemed to be linked and would likely be given more involvement in the combined Hutchings and Whittaker case that so many officers were now being assigned to. Usually Jessica and Cornish would work separately but it was felt it would look better if two detectives more senior than constables visited Toby’s mother, given the time that had passed.

Jessica drove to the estate where Lucy lived and saw Cornish’s car parked around a hundred metres away from the house. She pulled in behind her colleague and saw the other sergeant getting out of her vehicle. Cornish was approaching fifty and had short dark hair which she swept away from her face. Despite being in her thirties and having equal rank, Jessica saw Louise as a grown-up compared to herself. The other woman was as smartly dressed as usual, with a crisp blouse and trouser suit. She greeted Jessica with a formal, ‘Are you ready?’ before leading the way towards Lucy’s house.

The estate was a complete contrast to the areas where Daisy Peters and Kayla Hutchings lived. While those were filled with identically well-kept houses, Lucy lived in a place in which council houses alternated with housing association properties and a mixture of the two that had been sold off. It was a combination of bungalows, flats and semi-detached houses in various states of repair. Some buildings looked well-maintained but others had overgrown gardens and one house they passed was boarded up and covered with graffiti. In the distance Jessica could see two boys who should probably be at school playing football in the road. The two sergeants exchanged a knowing look as they approached the front door and DS Cornish rang the doorbell.

After a few moments a man answered. He was tall and well-built, large shoulders filling a rugby shirt. He introduced himself as Neil Martin and invited them into a cluttered hallway, apologising for the mess. Jessica noticed sets of children’s shoes thrown to one side. There were also school photographs, which seemed recent, of two girls who were maybe five or six years old hanging in the living room. He offered them the sofa and said Lucy wouldn’t be long before disappearing to make them a cup of tea. The two detectives were alone but Jessica couldn’t think of anything to say. She scanned the walls, which were relatively clear aside from the photos.

She couldn’t see anything of Toby.

Neither officer broke the uncomfortable silence before a woman walked into the room. She was thin with long black hair that was still wet and wearing tight jeans with a baggy jumper. Jessica and Cornish both stood but the woman Jessica assumed was Lucy waved her arm, then sat in an armchair opposite them. She didn’t say anything but glared at the two officers and Jessica felt bound to start the conversation. ‘Lucy Whittaker?’

‘Not Whittaker, it’s Martin now, I got remarried six months ago.’

That change wasn’t in the information Jessica had but should have been checked by someone. Lucy sounded annoyed but Jessica didn’t think it was because she had called her by the wrong name.

‘Sorry,’ Jessica said. ‘I know someone spoke to you yesterday about what we found.’

‘Toby’s clothes?’

‘Yes.’

‘It took you long enough. I’ve been waiting for you to find him for fourteen years.’

Jessica knew she had to be careful about how she chose her words. ‘Because of everything that’s happened, we wanted to run through a couple of details with you,’ she said.

The woman shrugged, shaking her head slightly. ‘Is there anything you expect me to know now that I didn’t then?’

Before anyone could respond, Neil returned with four mugs of tea on a tray. Jessica thought her consumption of hot liquids was beginning to hit ridiculous levels. Prior to becoming a detective, she didn’t drink anything during the day other than water or lemonade. Now, if she was placed on a drip feeding Earl Grey directly into her system, it would probably provide only slightly more tea than she ended up drinking anyway.

After handing out the mugs, Neil sat on the armrest next to his wife, resting a hand on her shoulder. Jessica glanced at the pictures of the school girls on the wall and wondered if they were Neil’s or Lucy’s from a previous relationship – or if the couple were in a long-term relationship but had only recently got married. Lucy didn’t seem to be in a receptive enough mood to ask and Jessica was feeling under-prepared as Toby’s mother continued to eye her suspiciously.

The two detectives ran through some of the basic details they already knew. Lucy and her former partner Dean moved from one side of the city to the other around a year after Toby disappeared. That created problems for their daughter Annabel, because she had to leave her friends. Lucy told them Annabel now lived and worked in London with her boyfriend and had minimal contact with them. Lucy’s own relationship with Dean had broken down and they had gone their separate ways within three years of Toby disappearing.

Because of Lucy’s hostility it took the two sergeants quite a while to get to the specifics. Cornish eventually established the two girls on the wall were called Olivia, who was six, and Natasha, who was a year younger. Neil and Lucy were natural parents to both of them and it sounded as if they had been in a relationship over some years.