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TUESDAY

The birth certificate tingled Lottie’s hand. She knew she’d had no right to enter Diana’s house, let alone take anything, but the woman had disappeared with her grandson and needs must.

The creased yellowing document made no sense. The names of the child and the mother meant nothing to her. No father was included on the cert. It was dated thirty years previously. She searched the names on PULSE without success; similar negative result on Google. Two phantoms to add to the mystery of the murders and disappearances.

Kirby was with SOCOs at the lane beside the Moorland houses. The warrant for Laura Nolan’s financials had been executed and the bank submitted them that morning. McKeown was working his way through them, having given up trying to enhance the old group photo found among Aneta’s possessions. He’d forwarded the photo to the tech guys. Lottie hoped the photo or the financials yielded a result, because she needed something to happen soon.

She went in search of Boyd. ‘I need to get out of here.’

‘You’ve only just arrived,’ he said.

‘I can’t settle. Let’s see if Gordon Collins has reappeared.’

Boyd drove and she leaned her head against the side window. ‘How did Sergio get on with Amy?’

‘Brilliantly. He had no objection going there this morning.’

‘She works in town, doesn’t she?’

‘Two mornings a week. She mentioned she can take them off this week to look after Sergio.’

‘Kirby hit pay dirt when he met her.’ As they drove along the narrow road to Collins’s house, she noticed a thick plume of grey smoke in the sky. ‘Is that a fire?’

‘Gosh, it could be.’

At the turn in the road, the way ahead was blocked by a fire engine. Boyd parked up on the grass verge and Lottie jumped out, running as fast as she could towards where the smoke grew thicker, clogging her throat. At the open gate, she paused. There was frantic activity, with a glut of firefighters spraying water on the house.

‘Where’s the owner?’ she asked one firefighter.

‘Hey, you can’t go any closer. It’s in danger of collapse.’

‘Is there anyone inside?’

He shrugged and continued his job.

She eventually found the fire officer in charge.

‘Ambulance is on the way.’ He was crouched beside a man blackened with smoke, wrapped in a foil blanket. ‘But we need to move him further away now.’ He turned to Lottie. ‘Can you help me?’

She grabbed one elbow while the fire officer got hold of the other, and they hauled the man to his bare feet. She had to squint through the smoke as they moved off the lawn and onto the road to await the ambulance. There they sat him on the grass verge.

‘Can you stay with him?’ asked the fire officer.

She nodded her assent, and he went back to the burning site.

Sitting beside the shivering silent man, she asked, ‘Can you tell me what happened?’

To her surprise, he began to cry. Loud, gut-wrenching sobs. They scared her more than if he’d pulled a knife on her.

‘What is it?’ She looked back at the inferno that had been his home. ‘Is there someone in there?’

He was convulsed with tears and couldn’t or wouldn’t answer.

Boyd appeared, tugging on his coat. ‘What the hell?’

‘Find the fire officer in charge. Tell him to make sure there’s no one inside.’

Boyd took off, and she returned her attention to Gordon Collins. He turned his head towards her. His tears had washed some of the soot from his face.

‘I’m finished. I’ve destroyed everything and everyone.’

‘What happened?’

‘It’s gone. Everything I ever loved is gone. She has destroyed me.’

‘Who are you talking about?’

But he lowered his head and sobbed softly as the ambulance siren wailed in the distance.

SOCOs were as busy as ants in the lane by Moorland, but so far they had nothing to report to Kirby. He stood a little away under a tree and lit a cigar before doubling up coughing. Maybe Amy was right. He should give up the blasted things. He quenched it and stuffed it in his pocket as Grainne Nixon approached.

‘Got something for you.’ She held up an evidence bag. ‘Might be nothing to do with the Nolan girl’s murder, but it’s worth checking.’

He inspected the contents of the clear bag. A page from a child’s reading book. ‘It could have been dropped by a kid taking a shortcut to school.’

‘Yeah, it could, but there’s a speck of what looks like blood on the corner. It’s possible it came from the car that transported Laura’s body,’ Grainne said. ‘Turn it over.’

He did. There was a name printed in biro on the top right corner of a title page. ‘Maggie. Name means nothing to me. Where exactly did you find it?’

‘Embedded in a tyre rut. We’ve taken impressions. It’s really soggy, but it was sheltered by the bushes. It might be possible to extract DNA from it.’

He photographed both sides of the page with his phone and handed it back.

‘Thanks, Grainne. I better show this to the boss. Buzz me if you find anything else.’