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with any man I’ve been out with before. I usually go for quiet intellectual types. Oh, God, listen to me, prattling on.’
    ‘And you’re enjoying married life,’ Millie reiterated, wanting to give Lucy the opportunity to disclose anything that wasn’t so good.
    ‘It was great, until all this started.’ But she still couldn’t muster much enthusiasm.
    ‘What does Will think?’
    ‘Between you and me? I’m not sure if he believes me.’ She drifted off for a moment. ‘Was your marriage . . .?’
    ‘Arranged?’ Millie offered.
    ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t make assumptions.’
    ‘No, it’s fine. I always swore I’d never go down that route, but then my parents introduced me to Suliman and I really liked him. We ended up having the full traditional Asian wedding, but it was brilliant.’ Millie turned back to the wedding photos. ‘You said Julie-Ann is your best friend?’
    ‘Yes, we do a lot together - or at least we used to before I got married.’ As she spoke Lucy gazed down at the rings on her left hand, stretching out her fingers to straighten them.
    There was some deep reflection going on there, but good or bad Millie couldn’t tell. She wondered how Julie-Ann felt about the marriage. ‘I’ll need her details,’ Millie said.
    ‘Why?’ It startled Lucy out of her thoughts.
    ‘It’s just routine,’ Millie said casually. ‘We talk to friends and acquaintances. In fact, is there anyone else you can think of who might be able to help?’
    There were not many. Apart from her mother and work colleagues, Lucy didn’t appear to have a rampant social life. It was a stark contrast with Millie. Since she’d married she’d never been out so much. But maybe Lucy and Will got all they needed from each other. Millie knew plenty of other couples who were like that.
    Suddenly, Lucy turned to her. ‘Listen, I don’t know if this is allowed, but I’d love to see your wedding photos sometime.’
    Millie smiled. ‘I’m sure we can manage that.’
    Mariner came back into the lounge, his survey of the property complete. ‘Have you ever thought about having a burglar alarm?’ he asked Lucy.
    She shook her head. ‘It crossed my mind, but I’d be concerned about it going off all the time and disturbing the neighbours.’
    It was the reaction of many people these days and Mariner was, if anything, inclined to agree. ‘Well, a couple of security lights front and back wouldn’t hurt, but, otherwise, as you’d expect with a building this new, you’re pretty secure. As long as you remember to lock the door behind you and keep the ground-floor windows closed, you’ll be quite safe in here. There’s nothing to worry about.’
    ‘Thank you.’ She seemed to genuinely take comfort from the simple reassurance.
    Mariner’s phone rang. It was Tony Knox. ‘We need to get back,’ he said.
    Millie stood up and Lucy took the drained coffee cup from her. She saw them out into the hall.
    ‘I’ll keep in touch,’ Millie said. ‘There’s a good chance that once whoever is doing this learns that we are involved it will be enough to make them stop, but if you get any further incidents it’s important that you log them; date, time and exactly what happened, so that if we eventually get to court we have some specific evidence.’
    ‘What about tapping my phone?’
    Millie grimaced. ‘It’s not actually as easy as it looks on TV,’ she said. ‘And we don’t have that level of resourcing at this stage.’
    ‘It’s not serious enough,’ Lucy said. Stated so blandly, it sounded mean.
    ‘But we are taking this seriously,’ Millie added quickly. ‘The two things are not the same.’
    ‘No, you’re right. I’m sorry. I guess I was just hoping you’d wave a magic wand.’
    Millie pulled a face. ‘Sorry, they’re not part of the kit!’
    ‘Thanks for your time, anyway.’
    ‘Sure,’ said Millie. ‘We’ll keep in touch.’
    Reversing out of the drive, Mariner had to manoeuvre carefully to avoid a