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‘What are you doing here?’ he said. ‘We’re closed. Or soon will be. There’s no one actually here, so we’re not gonna hang around much longer. We’ve only had six customers all day.’

‘There’s something I need to tell you,’ Kelly said. ‘It’s really important. I think it could be to do with your father’s disappearance.’

Edward looked surprised, at least briefly. Then he said, ‘Are you hungry? I’ve got some stuff I’ve gotta get rid of.’

‘Thanks.’

He let her in through a back door, then showed her a basket of cakes and pastries and told her to take whatever she wanted.

‘Otherwise,’ he said, ‘I’ll probably give it all to Ned like I usually do. But he’s got less teeth than those toads of his, so I don’t really want him to lose any more.’

‘Thanks,’ Kelly said, tucking into a Danish and taking a slice of apple pie with her to the table. ‘This is good.’

‘It is today. It won’t be by tomorrow morning,’ Edward said. ‘Now what’s this you’re saying about my father? You’re not still on that kidnapping trip, are you? You know he’s probably sunning himself in Thailand or on the Gold Coast with his internet floozy.’

‘Look,’ Kelly said, ‘I have reason to believe that your father has been kidnapped. And I believe the people responsible for it might be right here in the village.’

‘Really?’ Edward said, sounding tired, as though the whole business was something he wanted to wash his hands of.

‘Can you tell me about the last time you saw him?’

‘To be honest, it was a couple of years ago,’ Edward said. ‘We weren’t talking.’

‘I heard on the grapevine that you and your father don’t get along.’

‘The grapevine, really?’ Edward said. ‘Would this grapevine of yours happen to have a name?’

Kelly shook her head, unable to resist a small smile. Even when he looked angry, he was insanely handsome, and she had to concentrate on what she was trying to say to avoid staring at his face.

‘A reporter never reveals their sources,’ Kelly said. ‘But rest assured that it was about as reputable a source as I’ve found round here so far.’

‘It was Mrs Flowers, wasn’t it?’ Edward said with a smile. ‘You know, the old gossip who works in the museum.’

‘Who?’ Kelly said. ‘Mrs Bunch of Flowers?’

‘You know exactly who I’m talking about,’ Edward said. ‘She’s the one who thinks she’s a witch, always pretending to read people’s fortunes like she’s some kind of psychic.’

Kelly grimaced. ‘I really don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘Has she done the Stones of Mayhem on you yet?’ Edward asked. ‘If she hasn’t, she will.’

‘Stones of what?’ Kelly said, aware that she was starting to sweat. ‘Can we just stay on topic, please? Why aren’t you talking to your dad?’

Edward sighed. ‘All right. If you really want to know, it’s because I didn’t attend my grandmother’s funeral.’

‘Really?’

‘I mean, he might have forgiven me if I’d not wanted to attend her funeral because I was living in Australia, and she died suddenly without warning, and I didn’t have the money at the time to afford a ticket. So I could have just used that as an excuse.

‘But the problem was I’ve never really been very good at lying to people.’

‘Oh,’ Kelly said. ‘What exactly was it you said to him to make him so upset?’

‘When he told me she had died, I said the first thing that came into my head, which so happened to be the truth.’

‘And what was that?’ Kelly said.

Edward grimaced.