‘Nothing. I’ve looked everywhere. I had a few tenners in a tea caddy. Still there. What can it mean, Frank?’

‘I don’t know.’ He glanced around the living room. Everything looked exactly as it had looked on those other nights, when they’d been gathered around the flip chart. The flip chart itself was neatly closed, as if the intruder had also lacked curiosity, as well as the wish to steal any of her modest possessions.

‘I’ll get you a drink,’ she said.

Preoccupied as he was, he realized there was something different about her. She was wearing a sage green jacket, a short pencil skirt and a black top and even more care than usual seemed to have been taken with her appearance. ‘You’re looking posh again,’ he said, ‘as your dad would say.’

‘I’ve been promoted. Officially. I’m a supervisor from the first of next month.’

‘Well, that’s great! Just great.’ He put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her cheek. He wished it hadn’t made her lavender eyes shine quite so warmly.

‘I could have done without a break-in on a day like this. I was hoping I could take you for a meal, with the case looking as if it’s nearly over.’

‘You’re right, the bastard’s timing couldn’t be worse.’

‘I don’t suppose we could go out? When the lock man’s been? This is just vandalism. You know what kids on the estate are like.’

He would genuinely have liked to go for a meal. He knew he’d have to steer a careful line between his friendship for her and her attraction to him, but he’d have enjoyed talking about her promotion. It would have pleased him to encourage her to look even further ahead. Complete her education, learn computer skills. He knew now she was the type who could do things, all she’d ever needed was encouragement.

‘Sorry, Patsy, but the break-in bugs me, don’t ask me why. We’ll go out somewhere soon, I promise.’ She began to look as uneasy as he felt. ‘Don’t worry,’ he told her, patting her arm, ‘I’ll sort it.’

He looked around the room again. He’d have felt easier if it had been vandals, nicking her telly and her tea-caddy money, trashing the room, scribbling on the pages of the flip chart. The flip chart!’

‘Patsy, was it you who closed up the flip chart last night?’

She gave him a puzzled look, slowly shook her head. ‘I always leave it exactly as you and Geoff leave it.’

‘Well, I went after Geoff last night and I left it open on the last sheet. The one I did on Julia Gregson.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘What if whoever broke in was only interested in the flip chart itself?’ He was already keying his mobile. ‘Geoff? Frank. Look, Geoff, two things. Hellewell’s legged it and Patsy’s been broken into.’

‘Keep talking.’

‘Nothing’s been taken from the flat, but I’m pretty sure the flip chart’s been tampered with.’

‘Who’d want to do that? Who’d even know about it?’

‘You don’t think it could be Hellewell? One of his pals?’

Anderson was silent for a couple of seconds. ‘Do you realize what you’re saying, Frank? God, all our thinking, all our notes. They’d give him the full picture. He’ll know he’s the leading suspect!’

‘That could be why he legged it. Kirsty told Benson he was picked up. Someone must be helping him.’

‘Frank,’ he said slowly, as if to calm himself, ‘we’ve got to apply some rigorous analysis here before we get too carried away. How could Hellewell know about the flip chart?’

‘Could you possibly have been followed yesterday, from Leaf and Petal?’

‘It’s … possible, I suppose. But I went on to the siege.’

‘Maybe he tailed you there and then on to Patsy’s.’

‘Still possible. He’d have gone unnoticed in the crowd.’

‘Look, you talked to Kirsty in her own office. Maybe Hellewell found out and wondered what she could be telling you. He must have known things weren’t the same between them any more. Let’s say he feels he’s got to know, shadow’s you to Patsy’s place, but maybe thinks it’s your place. He could have sneaked in behind you to pin down the actual flat, the front door takes several seconds to close and lock itself.’

‘You know, I think someone did come in behind me when the lock was tripped. I thought nothing of it, people are always in and out.’

‘Once he knew the exact flat, maybe he decides to come back when he thinks you’ll be out and go through your notes, tapes, whatever he can lay hands on. So then he drives back to the garden centre and pretends to be working late. He could have nipped back this morning, after checking you were at the Standard office and most of the other residents would be at work. A credit card would open the front door, it’s a simple mechanism.’

‘If that’s how it did happen he certainly hit the jackpot!’

Crane smiled sourly. The flip chart had been the whiz kid’s idea, not his. ‘Well, if it is Hellewell, and I can’t see who else it can be, all he’s doing is digging himself in deeper. And why leg it if you’ve got a clear conscience?’

‘It would be handy if we could nail him ahead of the police.’ The excitement was rising in his voice again. ‘The A Team!’

‘And make a proper job of it.’ Anderson’s enthusiasm was catching.

‘I’m working out of town just now, but I’ll be in touch as soon as I’m back. He’ll not go far without money and help. Good luck, pal.’

Crane knew he didn’t mean those final words, but it was a nice gesture. Patsy’s troubled eyes met his. He said, ‘You’ll have got most of that, yes? We can only see it being Hellewell, and now it looks as if he might know everything we know. But I’m certain it doesn’t affect you, so you mustn’t worry. Me and the paper boy are determined to sort it.’

He rang Hellewell’s home number. Kirsty answered quickly, sounding very nervous. ‘Mrs Hellewell? Frank Crane. I was with Geoff yesterday.’

‘What is it, Mr Crane?’

‘Geoff played me the tape he made with you. We’re working together, as you know.’

‘That’s all right,’ she said in a low voice. ‘It was only because I know Geoff so well, and not knowing you …’

‘I quite understand. It’s vital your husband’s found, Kirsty, if only so he can be eliminated from the new investigation. You told DS Benson that Joe was working late, but would you know if he was away from the nursery some time in the early evening? For about an hour or so?’

‘I really couldn’t tell you. I came home not long after Geoff left.’

‘Would any of the staff know, do you suppose?’

‘I doubt it. Joe’s always here, there and everywhere. It’s the nature of the job.’

‘All right. Would you know if he took his passport with him?’

‘Let me look, I keep them all together. You can go on talking, I’m using a cordless.’

‘You think he was picked up?’

‘We have CCTV now. The police asked me to check the tape. A car drew up near one of the greenhouses about nine. It was too far from the cameras to see the number or who was in it, though the police have ways of sharpening the picture. It could be a Honda … maybe an Accord.’ As she talked, Crane could here the sounds of drawers being opened. ‘Ah, his passport’s still here.’

‘Good, it narrows the field. Thanks a lot, Kirsty, you’ve been very helpful.’

She was silent for a short time. ‘Mr Crane, Frank … do you think there’s any possibility, any at all, that Adrian … Joe, didn’t do for that poor kid?’ she said quietly. ‘I’ll never live with him again, but we’ve been together a long time and we have a family. We were very happy once, when we were building the business up. I’d give anything to know he wasn’t involved.’

‘Anything’s possible, Kirsty,’ he said gently. ‘And so the sooner we find him the better.’

‘But you think it was him, don’t you? You and Geoff?’

There was no answer to that, at least not one that held the smallest crumb for her comfort.

He cleared his mobile. Patsy was standing before the flip chart, reading the last completed sheet. She sighed. ‘I feel sorry for Julia. She must have been in an awful state to break down the way you said she did. She must have been crazy about Donna. I can see it all. No one could play the sweet little innocent like Donna. I always had an idea she attracted both sides. I wonder who the other J could be.’