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fully escape from it either. Where did you go – when you left?’
    â€˜King’s College, London.’
    â€˜You didn’t have to answer that.’
    â€˜I know.’
    It was warm inside the car now, and the clock said 01:22.
    â€˜What did you study? You don’t have to answer that either.’
    â€˜Criminology and French.’
    He smiled suddenly at her. ‘What?’
    â€˜Nothing. Have you ever seen Martha Deane before?’
    â€˜Only in photographs.’
    â€˜Only in photographs,’ he repeated, quietly.
    They were both thinking about the way Martha had come running through the rain towards her.
    â€˜We had a call earlier from a security guard at the international ferry terminal on the south side of the Tyne – he thought he saw a body in the water.’ Laviolette was watching Anna as he said it. ‘You put a call out and people start taking every bit of driftwood they see for a body. Coastguard got a call earlier from a woman at Cullercoats who claimed she saw a body in the water – turned out to be a log.’
    Anna was aware that she was holding her breath.
    â€˜Well, the security guard did see a body – but not our body.’
    She exhaled as quietly as she could while the Inspector clicked up the lid of the CD storage unit by the handbrake.
    There was only one CD in there.
    â€˜Can I ask you something?’ she said, turning to look at him. ‘This has been assessed medium to high risk, hasn’t it?’
    â€˜After hearing your statement, I’m escalating it to high,’ he concluded heavily. ‘The sea temperature was around eight degrees Celcius today. The fifty percent immersion survival time for a normally clothed person in reasonable health with no underlying medical conditions is two hours.’
    â€˜He wasn’t in the sea, he was in a kayak – and he was wearing a wet suit.’
    Laviolette tried to prop his elbow on the window, but there was too much condensation. ‘How would you describe your relationship to Bryan Deane?’
    â€˜Friend of the family,’ she said, automatically.
    â€˜Did suicide ever cross your mind?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Said with conviction.’ He was smiling again now, a light smile that broke up his face into a network of fine lines. ‘Why not? You saw Bryan Deane for the first time today in over sixteen years, and you’d rule out suicide? What makes you so sure?’
    â€˜Martha. I saw them together this morning.’
    Anna saw again – the tall girl in riding clothes with hair the colour she remembered Laura’s being as a child, standing on the grass verge beside her father, not much shorter.
    Bryan had his arm round her shoulders and Martha had gripped onto it while staring sullenly at Anna, hitting her crop against the sole of her boot.
    â€˜They seemed really connected. I don’t know.’ She shrugged irritably, aware that the Inspector was smiling at her still. ‘I just can’t imagine him leaving her behind.’ She paused, turning to him. ‘You’re seriously considering the possibility that the disappearance is voluntary?’
    â€˜I don’t know much about Bryan Deane, but I do know that he’s Area Manager at Tyneside Properties and that Tyneside Properties have had to shut down two of their branches in the past nine months. Then I hear that he owns an apartment overlooking the marina down at Royal Quays in North Shields that’s been on the market for months. Then tonight – as I’m heading home, I hear Bryan Deane’s disappeared, and I find that interesting.’ He waited for her to say something, rubbing the condensation from the window and staring up at the Deanes’ house. ‘I wonder what’s going on in there now,’ he said. The downstairs had gone dark, but there were lights on upstairs. ‘Not a lot of love lost between those two. Mother and daughter, I