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that’s the best thing we can believe.’
    She frowned, then shook her head. ‘I want to know the truth. I owe that to Luce. I think we both do.’
    I winced, bowed my head. ‘Yes.’
    ‘The thing is, if we can’t rely on what Owen and Curtis said afterwards, then we really have no idea at all what happened to her. All we can say for sure is that she disappeared.’
    I was struck by her choice of words,
disappeared
rather than
died
. ‘But is it possible to know the truth now? What can we do? If you go to the police with your story of Owen’s last words, I’m sure they’ll just tell you to forget it.’
    ‘I know.’
    ‘Tell me, why didn’t you speak to Damien about this?’
    She looked uneasy, poking at her food. ‘Maybe I’ve been letting my imagination run away with me, I don’t know. But if we can’t rely on what Owen and Curtis said, can we believe Damien and Marcus either? They all stuck together at the inquest, told exactly the same story. Perhaps … there was some kind of cover-up.’
    I gaped at her. ‘A conspiracy? Oh, come on now, Anna. That is getting a bit wild.’
    ‘Yes, probably.’
    We ate in silence for a while. When we were finished I wiped my mouth and said, ‘So, what can we do?’
    ‘I was thinking—the police prepared a very detailed report of the case for the coroner. It contained transcripts of all the interviews they conducted, diagrams, timelines, everything. I saw it at the inquest, a big fat document, the coroner referred to it all the time. If we could get hold of that, we might find something.’
    ‘Okay, yes, we could try.’ I was trying to sound encouraging, just to satisfy her, but it sounded pretty hopeless to me. ‘Any idea how we could get hold of a copy? Do we apply to the coroner’s office or something?’
    ‘I thought we might ask Damien to get it for us. I thought it might be a sort of test.’
    I laughed. ‘You devious …’
    ‘Only it won’t work if I see Damien on my own. He’ll just laugh at me and brush me off with some condescending remark.’
    I thought she was probably right about that. There had always been a slight undercurrent of antagonism between them, something to do with Damien’s rather cavalier approach to the opposite sex, I assumed.
    ‘He gave me his card.’ I reached into my pocket and showed it to her. She nodded and looked expectantly at me. I hesitated, then decided that Damien was probably the only one who could reassure her. I took out my phone and dialled his mobile number.
    ‘Stokes.’
    ‘Damien, hi, it’s Josh.’
    ‘Oh, hi, Josh.’ I could hear the surprise in his voice.
    ‘I met Anna at the funeral, in fact I’m sitting having a cup of coffee with her now. We’ve been talking things over and there’s something we’d like to discuss with you.’
    ‘Oh yes? What is it?’
    ‘It’d be better if we sat down together, the three of us. Have you got a half-hour you could spare in the next day or two? We’ll come to you.’
    He laughed. ‘Mysterious, Josh. Well, of course, if it’s important. Stirred up a few memories today, did it?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    We waited, then he came back on. ‘How about this evening, six-thirty? There’s a little bar across the street from where I work—Sammy’s Bar.’
    ‘Fine. See you there.’
    As soon as I hung up Anna thanked me and said she had to go. We got in Mary’s car and I drove her to Central to catch her train back to work.
    ‘See you tonight,’ I said, and she waved and ran off into the crowd.
     
    I arrived at Sammy’s Bar with ten minutes to spare and saw Anna already there, sitting at a corner table with a glass of mineral water and a look of lock-jawed determination. I bought a beer and joined her.
    ‘Your clients all tucked up for the night?’ I asked.
    She smiled, looking tired. ‘They’re watching a movie, which means they’ll all be asleep.’
    ‘So, what’s the approach?’
    ‘Will you tell him? I think it’ll work better that way.’
    ‘Fine.’ I