Page 101 of Twisted Lies

She’d followed the curt instructions on the note to the letter, as she got the impression that interfering with Barney’s well-being was something she would do at her own peril.

In truth, the woman had surprised her by turning up at her home the night before, and although she would never admit it, there had been a reassurance in her presence. Even if Stone had only come to gloat, it was a familiar face amongst the chaos.

But she hadn’t gloated, and Frost had seen that closed, set expression she’d adopted after seeing the state of her house. She knew the expression well, as it was the one that shaped her face in all their dealings with each other.

Last night she had appreciated Stone’s no-nonsense, take-charge manner and her insistence at removing her from the scene. As she’d stood by the car, she’d been overwhelmed by the rage, the feeling of being violated and the sheer neck that she would be bullied into backing off. She’d tried not to think of the officers now trudging through her home, compounding the feelings of vulnerability. The nausea had never been far from her stomach, and she was grateful to have been removed from the situation.

But after a good night’s sleep and some distance, she was ready to get back to both her home and her story.

Yes, Stone had warned her, again, of the dangers of what she was doing, but she also knew that those same warnings would not deter the woman giving her the advice. Someone, somewhere had to give Trisha Morley a voice and, despite warning her off, the inspector had offered her another avenue to explore. She had never considered what might have happened between the couple while they’d been out of the country.

Following the prompt from Stone last night, she’d been able to log in remotely to her work intranet and had searched the scanned court documents for any references to injuries sustained outside the UK, and she had found nothing. There was nothing in her notebook either, so it was either an avenue the CPS hadn’t explored or they had come away empty.

She checked her watch. It was just after nine and now an acceptable time to try and find out.

Penny Colgan answered on the second ring.

‘Hey, Penny, sorry to call so early.’

‘It’s no problem. Just dropped the kids off at school. How are you?’

Frost appreciated the warmth in her voice, although this response was taking some getting used to. She was more used to people hanging up on her once they knew who she was and oftentimes before.

‘Listen, I’ve been thinking about something and I need your help.’

‘Shoot,’ she said as Frost heard the car door shut.

‘Trisha and Nick travelled quite a bit, didn’t they?’

‘Oh yeah, travelled the world. Always going to different locations. Nick liked to brag about where they’d been: Vegas; Niagara Falls; the Barrier Reef, in Australia; Great Wall of China. I lost count of the countries they visited. Why?’

Frost felt her heart drop a little. It had seemed like a good idea but trying to track down medical records in all of these countries could take months.

‘Was there anywhere in particular Trisha liked to go?’

‘No, it was a different continent every time.’

Frost felt the deflation of a good idea being popped before her very eyes.

‘Wait a minute. There was this one place.’

‘Go on,’ Frost urged, trying to stop all the air from coming out of the balloon.

‘In Italy. Trisha loved Italy. They went before they were married. Did all the usual sights and tours of Rome, Venice, Milan, but they happened upon a small town near Lake Como. I can’t remember the name of the place even though she told—’

‘Hang on one sec,’ Frost said, typing in a search of towns on Lake Como. She immediately saw that the lake was fifty-six square miles and was studded with villages and towns, so if Penny couldn’t remember the name, her search would end right now.

She didn’t bother to call out the town of Como, as Penny would have remembered that.

‘Was it Bellagio?’

‘No.’

‘Tremezzina?’

‘No.’

‘Nesso?’