Janet turned.
‘Potted shrimp wouldn’t go amiss,’ the boss said.
‘Not rock then?’ Janet said.
‘No, shrimp.’
‘Got it.’
They were mates, the boss and Janet. Like Janet and Rachel. Not a trio though, never that. Janet in the middle. Godzilla spent half her life racked off with Rachel – they had a professional relationship at best, boss and junior officer – but Janet and Gill went way back.
It was a dull day, layers of cloud, thick and grey, threatening drizzle. A contrast to the past couple of days of fine weather.
‘Richard Kavanagh’s not come up on the MisPers database,’ Rachel said. She was driving. It was a straight run so Janet didn’t need to navigate, and once they got close to the seaside town the satnav would guide them to their destination.
‘Could be reported missing in Wales but not got on to the system yet. They’d wait forty-eight hours anyway,’ Janet said.
Rachel looked at her own wedding ring. ‘Forty years. Can you imagine it? Mind you, you and Ade have done twenty-six now.’
‘Not sure we’ll make another year,’ Janet said.
Rachel glanced at her swiftly. ‘That bad?’
‘Whatever there was – that sparkle is long gone.’
‘Sparkle?’ said Rachel.
‘OK, not sparkle, but that attraction. And what comes after, comfort, companionship, happy to be raising a family together. Even that’s not the same any more. I feel like a nun,’ Janet said.
‘A nun?’
‘Celibate. What if that’s it, Rachel? The end of my sex life.’
‘Don’t be daft,’ Rachel said, ‘you’ll meet someone else.’
‘How, where?’
‘At work maybe?’
‘And that went really well last time,’ Janet said dryly. Meaning Andy.
‘Dating sites, then,’ Rachel said.
‘No way!’
‘Some of them are all right.’
‘And what if you end up with some nutter who’s got a thing for spanking?’ Janet said.
‘You don’t like a good spanking?’ Rachel kept a straight face. ‘You and Ade never-’
‘Shut up.’
‘As long as you agree a safe word you’re fine,’ Rachel said.
‘How do people ever pick those?’ Janet said. ‘How do you choose something you might not say anyway?’
‘Have to be something daft, like pineapple.’
‘Pineapple?’ Janet laughed.
‘Or a weird phrase, “It’s foggy in Paris”.’
‘Too long,’ Janet said, ‘sounds like a spy novel. The kids had a safe word when they were little. If there was a change of plan and someone had to pick them up, someone they weren’t expecting, then they’d have this password. It was Pikachu for a while, then Ariel. And Taisie went through this phase when this girl was sort of stalking her. Wanted to be friends, dead clingy, and Taisie didn’t like her but didn’t want to be blunt so I’d get these phone calls: Maria wanted her to stay over, Maria wanted her to go back after school, and Maria was going ice skating, could Taisie go. She’d get herself that wound up and we were always trying to find out what Taisie really wanted to do, knowing that this girl was there listening. In the end we worked out this code. We’d say something like “How you feeling?” or “You up to it?” and if she said “Fine” then off she’d go. That was usually because there were a group of them going. But if she didn’t want to, she’d say, “I think I’m getting a migraine.”’