---

Ross had been true to his word. The gate lock had been replaced and two spy surveillance units were set up – one outside, in the guise of a house alarm box, and another hidden behind a photo frame in Robyn’s sitting room, facing the settee and the window behind it. She could access both from an app on her phone and had found she could even catch the odd glimpse of her cat as he sat on the window ledge. She’d set her house alarm and was feeling less jittery after the events of the day before when she’d spotted the intruder.

Robyn and Matt were going to start the day with a visit to Brocton in the hope they could unearth information at Anthony Hawkins’ house, which might give them a clue as to who he was meeting on the golf course. Robyn stopped off first at Lauren Gregson’s house and was delighted to find Astra there.

‘Ella and Liam thought it would be a good idea if she came over. She’s been awfully miserable. We thought it might help her, and me. I haven’t seen her since…’ she swallowed. ‘Since before we lost Henry. Gives Ella a break and helps to take my mind off everything else.’

Astra was eating an apple, a piece in her small fist making its way to her mouth. She put it down immediately when she spotted Robyn, reached for the toy black cat next to her and lifted it towards her. ‘Look,’ she said.

‘You’ve brought your new cat with you,’ said Robyn.

The girl’s face was still ghostly pale but she seemed a little more content. She nodded.

‘How do you know it’s new?’ Lauren asked in surprise.

‘I gave it to her. I recently inherited a black cat and it’s wormed its way into my affections pretty quickly. I spotted that one in a shop and thought Astra might like it. She was so upset about Henry.’

The corners of Lauren’s mouth lifted. ‘What a lovely gesture. She’s a little poppet, isn’t she? Henry and I would have loved a little girl like her.’

Robyn reflected on the child she might have had, had she not miscarried, her thoughts interrupted by Astra.

‘Henry is gone,’ she said, solemnly.

‘That’s right,’ said Robyn, crossing the room and dropping down beside her. ‘But you have Lauren and she needs lots of cuddles from you. She misses Henry too. Can you look after Lauren?’

Astra gave her a sincere stare and nodded, then toddled across to Lauren, threw her arms around the tops of her legs, and hugged her tightly.

Lauren gave a soft laugh. ‘Thank you, poppet. Tell DI Carter what we’re going to do later.’

‘Watch a film,’ said Astra.

‘What are we going to watch?’ Lauren stroked the girl’s head tenderly.

‘Aristocats.’

‘That’s right, a Disney film all about cats, and this one is going to watch it with us. Why don’t you finish your apple and I’ll talk to DI Carter, then we’ll play dressing up?’

Astra obediently returned to the table, where she pretended to feed a slice of apple to the cat.

Lauren sighed. ‘I hope I can find another house nearby. I wouldn’t want to lose contact with Astra.’

‘You’re moving?’

‘I have to. I can’t afford the rent here on my own. The landlord’s been amazing and says I can stay a while, paying only half the rent, until I find another place. My colleagues at the estate agency have been on the lookout for a new place for me. Everyone’s being very kind. I asked Ella if there was any chance one of those barn conversions she rents is coming free soon, but she says not. My parents want me to move back home. I really don’t want to do that. It’ll be horrible without Henry, but at least here I have my independence, some friends, my job and Astra.’

‘Henry had no savings or life insurance?’

Lauren smiled weakly. ‘Not something we thought about. You don’t at our age, do you? We had a little saved up for a rainy day, but that day’s come. The funeral expenses will eat it away.’

Robyn and her team had already examined the Gregsons’ finances and discovered nothing untoward. There was no hidden money in an offshore fund or bond.

Robyn made small talk for a while longer before leaving to catch up with Matt. Her last image was of an excited Astra pulling out clothes from a dressing-up box Lauren had specially made for her. The possibility that Lauren had anything to do with Henry’s death was becoming less and less likely. There was nothing to gain financially from his death, and there didn’t appear to be another man in Lauren’s life. What would induce Lauren to have her husband killed? The only motive Robyn could come up with was jealousy. If the DNA test results proved Henry to be the father of Tessa’s baby, she’d have to consider Lauren as a suspect. She hoped it wouldn’t come to that – at least for Astra’s sake.

---

Robyn walked up the lane to Anthony Hawkins’ house, which appeared even more dismal than she recalled. The gate squealed in protest when she pushed it open, and inside the cottage there was already a damp smell, usually associated with old, uninhabited houses. She wrinkled her nose at it and called out. Matt was in the kitchen going through drawers. She joined him.

‘No diary or calendar?’

‘Nothing. There wasn’t anything on his phone either,’ said Matt. ‘No appointments or diary app. It’s a right antiquated piece – no Internet even – only good for calls and text messages.’

Robyn left him and entered the sitting room. It was a sad affair: a shabby chair, a single bed-settee covered with a woollen blanket to mask the stains on it, dark shelving filled with dusty books with faded spines. The flat-screen television was at odds with the room, and perched on one of the shelves was a shiny Bose sound system. Anthony had been amassing new purchases. It would only have been a matter of time before he’d have left this place and found somewhere more suited to his new lifestyle. A table next to the window was cluttered with receipts and paperwork. She shuffled through it all and finally found what she hoped for – a notepad. Although Anthony had noted Saturday’s date and the time, there was no mention of the person he was meeting.

‘Got it,’ she called.

Matt appeared almost instantly.

She held up the notepad. ‘No name.’

‘Oh crap. This is hopeless.’

Robyn flicked through the pages of the notepad. There were other scribbles in it, messages and dates that made little sense to her. ‘At least we know he definitely made arrangements to meet somebody at the golf course, and that person is likely to be his killer. We’ll take the notepad. He’s written other bits of information on it, which might lead to something. He didn’t have a computer, did he?’

‘No devices at all. I don’t think he was into technology. There’s no modem in the house.’

‘Okay, we’ll call it a day here.’

As they pulled away from his road, Robyn thought again about the likelihood of all the murders being connected. If they were, she still had to establish why. The other thought that bugged her was that Shearer’s hunch had been right. It was looking more likely that Anthony Hawkins had been murdered, and Shearer would be even more insufferable once he found out.