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now.’
    Geoff nodded. ‘Yep. By the way, Andy at Oxford nick got back to me earlier. Seems that they had a suspect at the time Hannah went missing.’
    Ben’s mind snapped to attention. ‘Who?’
    Geoff pulled a photo from the drawer. He laid it on the desk. The guy in the photo was wearing a black tee-shirt and black jeans. His stomach hung over the waistband of the jeans, and his thinning black hair was greased back. There was a bootlace tied around his neck. ‘Francis Arthur Crowley. This is his Facebook profile picture. He’s the maintenance man at Sunnyside. Andy said he raised a red flag.’
    ‘Why?’ Maddie asked. ‘What did he do?’
    ‘Nothing solid enough to haul him in for questioning. But staff at Sunnyside reckon he’s a right creep.’
    Ben looked at Crowley’s photo. ‘Why?’
    ‘Always hanging about like a bad smell.’
    ‘Well, he would if he works there, wouldn’t he? That’s just tittle-tattle.’
    Geoff shook his head. ‘He’s also got history.’
    ‘We’ve all got history. That doesn’t mean he’s capable of—’
    ‘Our friend Crowley exposed himself to a schoolgirl. That makes him capable of anything.’
    ‘When?’ Maddie asked.
    ‘About twenty years back.’
    ‘Was he charged?’ Ben asked. ‘Convicted?’
    ‘Yeah. Claimed he was pissed when he did it and doesn’t remember a thing. Another year later and the bugger would have been on the Sex Offenders’ Register. He had a lucky escape. The law was still quite lenient with perverts back then. Anyway, he’s our number one suspect.’
    Ben wasn’t so sure. ‘Just because he flashed to a woman?’
    ‘Schoolgirl,’ Geoff corrected. ‘A kid barely in her teens.’
    ‘That doesn’t mean he’s done anything to Hannah Heath, though, does it? That’s like saying just because someone bought a box of matches on the day of a fire they had to be the one who set it.’
    ‘It’s nothing of the sort. Crowley works – worked – with Hannah. He’s got previous for flashing to a kid. That marks him down as a filthy pervert. What more do you want?’
    Ben thought some proof that Crowley had actually abducted Hannah might be good. ‘Evidence.’
    ‘Then let’s get some. The sooner we find out what our Mr Crowley’s been up to, the better.’
    Maddie asked Geoff what else the police had found out about Hannah.
    ‘Not a lot. They’ve done all the usual searches. Hotels, guest houses, taxis, buses – zilch. It seems like she’s been abducted by a UFO.’
    ‘Maybe she has,’ Ben said. ‘Anyway, if the cops reckon this Crowley dude is so suspicious, why don’t they arrest him?’
    ‘Because they haven’t got a single stitch of evidence,’ Geoff said. ‘And, just for the record, we’re in England. Crowley is a man, not a “dude”. Next thing, you’ll be calling the pavement a “sidewalk” and the tap a “faucet”.’
    Ben ignored him. ‘Why didn’t the cops put him under surveillance?’
    ‘You’ve been watching too many police dramas. They don’t have the resources to follow any Tom, Dick or Harry.’
    ‘And we do?’
    ‘No. But as long as the Heaths stump up the cash, we can afford to follow Francis Arthur Crowley to the ends of the earth.’
    ‘Where does Crowley live?’ Maddie asked.
    ‘The mobile home site on Constitution Hill. Fifty-three River Walk.’
    ‘What about Hannah’s mobile?’ Maddie asked. ‘Has she used it since she went missing?’
    ‘Andy said they checked the records and there hasn’t been a single call made from it. The last one was to her mother at lunchtime the day she went missing.’
    ‘Sounds ominous,’ Maddie said.
    Geoff agreed. ‘Yes, but it’s not conclusive. There are other options to consider.’
    Like she phoned ET to take her home , Ben thought. ‘Such as?’
    ‘It’s possible she wanted to disappear. Ran off with someone and disabled her phone.’
    Ben didn’t buy that. ‘She was about to get married. Why would she run off with someone