MELISSA ARRIVED AT the station well ahead of the start of her shift, and immediately put the kettle on.
Once she was seated with a coffee, she found a pad and a pen and got to work. Putting together a chronological account of everything that had happened since Georgina Ryder went missing proved more difficult than Melissa anticipated. The task was complicated by the need to make sure that none of what she put down was coloured by her personal opinions or feelings.
The arrival of Sergeant Mitchell forced her to stop before she could finish; she didn’t want him to see what she was doing, in case he disapproved of it, which he almost certainly would.
“What are you doing this afternoon?” Mitchell asked when he found Melissa; he didn’t notice the several sheets of paper she whipped out of si
