It wasn't the girl. They had hauled out a bundle of evil-smelling rags. They took everything out of the inspection pit. Vicky wasn't there. She wasn't anywhere on the service station.

Vicky's mother was at the front door even before he got out of the car. She had been watching, peeking through the net curtains, hoping to see her daughter sitting in the passenger seat next to Frost. At least, he told himself, this time he wouldn't be breaking bad news. He lived in dread of the day when he would have to. She would not face the possibility that her daughter was not coming back. She had even talked herself into believing that Frost shared her optimism. 'She's alive, Inspector. I know it and you know it. Vicky's alive.'

The brittle smile was there when she opened the door, but the eyes were anxious and she looked ten years older than when he had first seen her. 'It's good news, Inspector, isn't it… I can tell from your face that it's good news.'

If it was good news not to have found her daughter's dead body, then that's what it was. 'The man was lying, Mrs. Stuart. He knows nothing about Vicky.'

'Of course he doesn't, Inspector. We both know she isn't dead, don't we?'

He said nothing. The coward's way out, but it was pointless trying to get her to face up to facts. She was still babbling away. 'You're going to find her. Any day now you're going to come to this door and you won't have to say a word – I'll see it from your face.' All the time she spoke her hands were worrying at her apron, twisting it, screwing it into tight balls of cloth.

Frost gave his non-committal nod. 'Marvellous if it happens, Mrs. Stuart.' If it made her happy…

'And it will happen, Inspector. You and I both know it… it will happen.'

He walked back to the Sierra feeling drained. He wanted to take hold of her and shake some sense into her and shout, 'She's bloody dead, Mrs. Stuart… a kid of eight can't go missing for nine weeks without a word and still be alive.' But he couldn't do it. He climbed back in the car and drove to the station ready to kick the shit out of Reggie bastard Todd.