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One

There was no fly and there should have been a fly It was that sort of room Grey linoleus But in these places there was always a fly too, zizzing slowly up and do pane Up and down Up and down Up

The wall at the far end was covered in whiteboards and pinboards Names Dates Places Then came:

Witnesses (which was blank)

Suspects (Blank)

Forensics (Blank)

In each case

There were five people in the conference roo at the boards for over an hour DCI Si at one of the photographs The bright fresh face The protruding ears The school tie The newly cut hair The expression Interested Alert

David Angus It was eight ate of his own house at ten past eight one

David Angus

Simon wished there was a fly to mesmerise him, instead of the small boy’s face

The call from DS Jim Chaplorious Sunday afternoon

Si to bat for Lafferton Police against Bevham Hospital 2nd Eleven The score was 228 for 5, the ht declare before he hiot in He wasn’t sure whether he would e cricketer But on such an afternoon, on such a fine ground, he was happy whether he went in to bat or not

The swifts soared and screah above the pavilion and ss skim the past few ain, for a host of thea supper with his sister and her family later He remembered what his nephew Sam had said suddenly the previous week, when he and Sith, leaping up out of the water with: “Today is a GOOD day!”

Simon smiled to himself It didn’t take much

“Howzzzzzaaaattt?”

But the cry faded away The bats for his hundred

“Uncle Simon, hey!”

“Hi, Sam”

His nephew ca the iven him to look after if he went in to bat

“Call for you It’s DCS Chap CID” Saht I should ask who it was …”

“No, that’s quite right Good work, Sam”

Siot up and walked round the corner of the pavilion

“Serrailler”

“Jim Chapman New recruit, was it?”

“Nephew I’m padded up, next in to bat”

“Good man Sorry to break into your Sunday afternoon Any chance of you co up here in the next couple of days?”

“Thechild?”

“Been three weeks and not a thing”

“I could drive up toive you Tuesday and Wednesday, if you need —once I’ve cleared it”

“I just did that Your Chief thinks a lot of you”

There was a hty cheer from the spectators and applause broke

“We’re a o”

Sa out his hand for the mobile

“What do I do if it rings when you’re batting?”

“Take the name and number and say I’ll call back”

“Right, guv”

Sihtened the buckle on his pad to hide a smile

But as he walked out to bat, a thin fog of htness of the day, souring his pleasure The child abduction case was always there, a stain on the recesses of the mind It was not only the fact that it was still a blank, unsolved and unresolved, but that the boy’s abductor was free to strike again No one liked an open case, let alone one so distressing The phone call frous case, to the force, to work … and from there, to how he had started to feel about his job in the past few months And why

Facing the tricky spin-bowling of a cardiac registrar gave hi else to concentrate on for the moment Simon hooked the first ball and ran

The pony neighing from the paddock woke Cat Deerbon from a sleep of less than two hours She lay, cra where she was She had been called out to an elderly patient who had fallen downstairs and fractured his fe and had woken her youngest child Felix had been hungry, thirsty and cross, and in the end Cat had fallen asleep next to his cot

Now, she sat up stiffly but his warh a slit in the curtains on to his face

It was only ten past six

The grey pony was standing by the fence grazing, but whinnied again, seeing Cat co towards it, carrot in hand

How could I leave all this? she thought, feeling its nuzzling mouth How could either of us bear to leave this fare?

The air smelled sweet and atowards one of the oak trees on the far side of the fence

Chris, her husband, was restless again, unhappy in general practice, furious at the burden of administration which took hiets, checks and balances He had spoken several ti to Australia for five years—whichhe had only put a time limit on it as a sop to her She had been there once to see her triplet brother, Ivo, and hated it—the only person, Chris said, who ever had

She wiped her hand, sliown The animal, satisfied, trotted quietly away across the paddock

They were so close to Lafferton and the practice, close to her parents and Simon, to the cathedral which meant so much to her They were also in the heart of the country, with a working farm across the lane where the children saw lambs and calves and helped feed chickens; they loved their schools, they had friends nearby

No, she thought, feeling the sun groarm on her back No

Froo to him, Sam, his brother and worshipper, rather than Hannah, who preferred her pony and had becoh his first year

Cat wandered round the edge of the paddock, knowing that she would feel tired later in the day but not resenting her broken night—seeing patients at their htened, had always been one of the best parts of working in general practice for her, and she had no intention of handing over night work to soreed They had locked horns about it too often and now simply avoided the subject

One of the old apple trees had a swathe of the white rose Wedding Day running through its gnarled branches and the scent drifted to her as she passed

No, she thought again

There had been toothe past couple of years, too much fear and tension; but now, apart fro—nothing except Chris’s discontents, move them away, spoil … Her bare feet ith dew

“Mummmeeeee Tellyphoooooonnne …”

Hannah was leaning too far out of an upstairs

Cat ran

It was apeople re sunshine and the fact that everything was fresh They relaxed and felt suddenly untroubled and strangers spoke to one another, passing in the street

Natalie Coombs would remember it too

“I can hear Ed’s car”