He promised that he would help them both pack: clothes and Game Boy for Tom, harness, lead and food for Charlie, and passports for them both. I asked him to tell Tom that I would come to Monaco for him as soon as I could, although I had no idea of what that meant in real terms. ‘There is no sign of your aunt, I’m afraid,’ he said, as I was about to hang up. I hadn’t even thought to ask him: if there had been, that would have been the first thing he’d have told me. I could feel no optimism on that front. Adrienne would not have walked off on an errand without her bag or her phone, far less her great-nephew, and if she’d had an accident or a stroke anywhere about the house, Tom or Charlie would have found her. I’d neglected to tell him before about Fanette’s mystery caller; I filled in that gap in his knowledge. ‘A woman, she said?’ ‘Yes. German or Swiss accent. But if it was who I think it might have been, don’t go looking for her in your neighbourhood.
