Joel shook his head. ‘Sorry. Sadie might have mentioned it but…’

‘An address then.’

Joel shook his head again. ‘I didn’t really know her that well. I’ve only met her once, a few weeks back when she turned up out of the blue. It was my mum’s birthday and there was a party so we all went to it together. She didn’t stay long though, only half an hour or so. Sadie said she wasn’t feeling well.’

‘Does Sadie have an address book?’

Joel, as if eager to be doing something useful, jumped up off the sofa. ‘Yes, it’s by the phone.’ He crossed the room, retrieved a small pale blue book, walked back and gave it to Gerald. ‘This is it.’

Gerald in turn passed the book to PC Turner. ‘Have a flick through this, John, see if you can find an Anne in it.’ He waited until Joel sat down again before asking his next question: ‘Has Sadie ever mentioned the name Mona Farrell to you?’

‘No, I don’t —’ Joel stopped abruptly as if something had just occurred to him. ‘Hold on, yes, she might have mentioned a Mona. I’m not sure. When she got back from London. A friend she’d bumped into at Eddie’s funeral? I think so. I couldn’t swear to it, though.’

‘Only we’ve not been able to track down Mona Farrell either. She told her mother she was going to stay with friends for a few days but we don’t know where.’

‘What, you think Sadie might be with this Mona? Is that what you’re saying?’

Gerald didn’t tell him that Mona Farrell had booked into the Bold hotel on Saturday. He thought about the papers they’d found at Peter Royston’s flat, a few press cuttings about the death of Eddie Wise and some basic stuff on Sadie. There had, however, been a virtual dossier on Mona Farrell with information on her history, her family and her connection to Sadie. At the very end of this file, a question had been posed in Royston’s small neat handwriting: Mona = Anne?

PC John Turner closed the address book and put it down on the table. ‘No Anne in it,’ he said. ‘No Mona Farrell either.’

Gerald paused for a second before asking Joel, ‘Do you think it’s possible that Mona Farrell and the woman you know as Anne are one and the same person?’

Joel looked bemused. ‘What? Why would they be? Look, what’s going on here? I don’t get it. I don’t understand.’

‘Do you know a journalist called Peter Royston?’

‘Yes, of course. I mean, I don’t know him well or anything. He’s a reporter on the local paper.’

‘Did you know he was looking into the murder of Eddie Wise?’

‘No, but I can’t say it surprises me. He likes scandal, likes writing about it. He’s not a particularly pleasant man.’

‘You haven’t heard then?’

‘Heard what?’ Joel asked.

Gerald leaned forward a little, keeping his eyes fixed on the other man. ‘Mr Royston was found murdered at the fairground on Saturday night.’

Joel flinched, his face paling. ‘He’s dead?’

‘I’m afraid so.’

‘I can’t believe it. Do you know who… how? Why? Have you arrested anyone?’ It took a few seconds for his brain to make the necessary connections and then the leap as to why the police were so eager to find Sadie. ‘God, you can’t think Sadie had anything to do with it. That’s crazy! She wouldn’t. She couldn’t.’

‘We’re not making any accusations, Joel. We simply want to talk to her. Does she often go to the fair?’

‘No, never.’

‘Well, we’re pretty sure she was there on Saturday night. We have a witness, a local woman, who claims she saw her standing by the Big Wheel at about eight o’clock. She looked as though she was waiting for someone.’

Joel gave a shake of his head and stood up again. He paced over to the window and stared out for a moment. ‘I don’t know why she’d go there. Maybe they’re wrong… this witness. Are they sure?’

‘Yes,’ Gerald said. ‘Does Sadie have a passport, Joel?’

Joel spun round, startled by the question. ‘What?’

‘A passport,’ Gerald repeated gently. ‘Please don’t be alarmed. It’s just procedure. One of those things we have to check when people go missing.’

‘Yes, she keeps it in the bedroom.’ Joel, as if he didn’t know what to do with his hands, put them in his pockets and then took them out again. ‘I’ll go and get it, shall I?’

‘If you would.’

Joel returned about thirty seconds later, brandishing the passport. ‘Here,’ he said, thrusting it into the inspector’s lap as if its presence in the flat was proof positive of Sadie’s innocence. ‘I knew it would still be here.’

Gerald flicked it open, checked that it hadn’t expired, gave a nod and passed it back. ‘Thank you.’

‘She didn’t have anything to do with the murder,’ Joel said insistently. ‘Even if she was at the fair, that doesn’t mean… Maybe she saw something and it scared her. Maybe she’s in danger or… my God, what if the same person who killed Royston has done something to her too?’

‘Why don’t you sit down,’ Gerald said. ‘Please try not to worry too much. We’ve got no reason to suspect that she’s been hurt in any way.’ He waited until Joel was back on the sofa before continuing. ‘How has Sadie been lately? I mean, in herself?’

Joel briefly lifted his hands before letting them drop back again. ‘As you’d expect. All this business with Eddie has knocked her for six. And it’s not easy being under suspicion, especially in a small town like this.’

‘You didn’t feel she had anything else on her mind?’

‘Isn’t that enough?’

‘Yes, of course. It must have been very hard for her. For both of you. This type of thing can put a strain on relationships.’ Gerald saw a flicker in the younger man’s eyes and knew that he’d hit a nerve. Perhaps the relationship wasn’t quite as rosy as it appeared on the surface. He thought of the rumours about Sadie Wise and Nathan Stone. ‘Any unusual phone calls, anything like that?’

‘Unusual?’

‘You know, people putting the phone down when you answer it. Not speaking.’

Joel shook his head. ‘No.’ And then he frowned. ‘Well, maybe there was something.’ He hesitated as if weighing up in his mind any possible disloyalty to Sadie. A few seconds passed before he said, ‘The girl, Anne – Sadie was trying to avoid her.’

‘In what way?’

‘She didn’t want to take her calls. I had to keep telling her – Anne, I mean – that Sadie wasn’t in.’

‘Did Sadie tell you why?’

‘Only that Anne kept going on about Eddie. She didn’t want to talk about him. It was too much for her. I don’t think Anne was being deliberately unkind, just a bit insensitive.’

‘How often did she call?’

‘Quite a lot, almost every day.’ Joel ran the palms of his hands along his thighs again. He stared down at the floor before slowly lifting his gaze to look at the inspector. ‘Why do you think that Anne and Mona are the same person?’

‘I can’t really say at the moment.’

‘But you think Sadie might be with her?’

‘It’s possible.’

Joel pondered on this for a while. ‘But if that’s the case, then why did Anne call me earlier? Why would she be looking for Sadie if they were together?’

Gerald suspected that the girl had called to squeeze some information out of Joel, to try and suss out what was happening this end. ‘What did she say exactly?’

‘Nothing much, only that she didn’t know where she was.’ Joel screwed up his face, trying to remember the details of the conversation. ‘I told her the police were looking for Sadie and she asked me why. I said… I said I thought it was something to do with Eddie. I mean, I didn’t know about Peter Royston then.’

‘Did she mention Royston at all?’

‘No.’

‘And how did she sound?’

Joel gave a shrug. ‘Normal, the same. A bit worried, I suppose. She said to let her know if I heard anything. Oh, and she was calling from a phone box – she doesn’t usually. I heard the pips go when I picked up the phone.’

‘Any noise in the background?’

‘No, I don’t… I’m not sure. I can’t really remember. I don’t think so.’