Grey rang the doorbell and stepped back to wait, wondering as he did so if they were wasting their time, as they had been at the other two houses they had visited. Their whole afternoon had been wasted in Grey's opinion; they had tracked down what details they could on the kidnapping case involving Gabby Johnson and Rowan Manning, and then confirmed Manning's alibi. After that they had moved on to confirming the whereabouts of the three former employees of Griffin Games who hadn't yet been checked out.

The first two former Griffin Games employees they had visited had solid alibis for the entirety of the previous day. Not only did they have alibis, they lacked motives for kidnapping Alice Keating; both had been hired for projects which had ended successfully, left with good references, and now had well-paid jobs with other companies. They were left with just Lewis Rice to check out – he had a possible motive, given how his employment with Griffin Games had ended, but what information they had on the man suggested it was unlikely that he would be involved in Alice Keating's kidnapping; Lewis Rice was, according to what they had been told by his former colleagues, a very intelligent, but meek and retiring, person who wouldn't say boo to a goose, and wouldn't dream of taking the initiative in anything more daring than getting a round of drinks. The mismatch made it necessary for them to look further into the man and his background.

When there was no response to his knock after a minute, Grey knocked again, he then moved away from the front door. Stepping off the path, he moved to the living room window so he could peer in, in case there was someone at home who either wasn't willing or wasn't able to answer the door. He couldn't see anything or anyone, and after another minute he reluctantly accepted that there was no-one home, just as there hadn't been when the uniformed officers tried to find Lewis Rice.

"Let's try the neighbours," Reid suggested. "One of them might know where he is."

Grey nodded. "His car's here, maybe he just went to the shops or something." There was a small group of shops a couple of streets away, and he supposed it was possible the man they were looking for had walked there rather than driving.

Together, they walked back down the path and made their way around to the house next door. They went to their right first, for no reason they could have articulated. This time they were in luck, their knocked was answered almost immediately.

"Hello," the cautious greeting was offered by an elderly gentleman, who opened the door just far enough to look out and held onto it, ready to close it at the first sign of trouble.

"Good afternoon, sir," Reid said at his most polite. "I'm Detective Constable Reid, and this is Detective Constable Grey." They both held out their warrant cards so they could be examined. "Do you mind if we ask you a few questions, Mr...?"

"Penfold," the old man answered once he had finished scrutinising the warrants cards, and was satisfied that the two men before him were indeed detectives. He relaxed a little, but his hand remained on the door as his eyes moved constantly between Grey and Reid. "What do you want to know?" he asked.

"We're interested in your neighbour, Mr Rice, Mr Penfold," Reid said. "Do you mind if we come in?" He didn't imagine they were going to be there long, but he didn't think it a good idea for them to ask their questions on the doorstep; if Lewis Rice was one of the people they were looking for, he didn't want him to see them, get spooked, and disappear, should he come home.

"Sure, sure, come on in." Penfold stepped back from the door, gesturing for them to enter as he did so. "The living room's just through there." He pointed to a doorway down the passage from him with his stick. "Go right in and make yourself comfortable; if Buster makes a nuisance of himself, or tries to get up on the sofa, just push him away. He likes to be made a fuss of, and loves it when we have visitors, even if he doesn't know who they are." As he continued to speak the old man shuffled forward so he could close the front door.

"Buster, get down," Penfold said sharply as he entered the living room. With his stick, he nudged the dog, which was far younger and more active than its master, away from the two detectives, who were attempting to sit on the sofa without hurting the frisky animal. "Now, you said you want to speak to me about Lewis, what is it you want to know?" Once he had shooed his companion to his basket, he settled into the armchair.

"The main thing we want to know is, where is Mr Rice, do you know where we can find him? He doesn't appear to be home," Grey said.

"No, I'm afraid not," Penfold answered without hesitation. "I haven't seen him today, or yesterday, but that's no surprise; aside from walking Buster, I don't get out much. Has he done something wrong?" he asked curiously.

Grey shook his head. "No, sir, not as far as I'm aware," he said, downplaying the situation as best he could. "We just need to speak to him."

"How well do you know Mr Rice?" Reid asked, thinking that though Penfold hadn't seen Lewis Rice in the last two days, and hence couldn't help with establishing where the programmer had been the previous afternoon, he might still be able to provide some useful information.

"Well enough, I suppose," Penfold said, the curiosity in his face growing at the questions. "As I said, I don't get out much, but Lewis always speaks when he sees me, and he gets on well with Buster."

"What can you tell us about him?"

Penfold didn't speak for a few moments as he decided what to say. "He's a nice person," he said finally. "His mind's off in the clouds a lot of the time, but he's very nice; he's very intelligent guy, I asked him once what he does for a living, and was confused by the time he finished the first sentence. It's something to do with computers, I gather. he gave me an old computer he was going to throw out last year, even set it up so I can speak to my daughter in Canada and my son up in Scotland, it's made such a difference."

"That was good of him," Grey remarked. "Not everyone would have taken the time."

"I know, my neighbour on the other side, now he's a right miserable bugger, wouldn't pee on you if you were on fire. Don't think I've passed a dozen words with him in the past three months, if not longer. Always chasing Buster away when he sees him as well, even if he isn't anywhere near his garden." Penfold scowled over his shoulder in the direction of his curmudgeonly neighbour. "Lewis, though, is very good about helping out if I need anything done; I know he's helped Jackie out as well. His neighbour on the other side," he explained. "She's a single mum, got three kids, needs a lot of help at times. Mind, Lewis isn't much use if you need help with anything other than computers; he's hopeless with DIY, gardening, just about anything that isn't electronic or computer related really, but he's always willing to give it a try and do his best.

"At least he was."

"What do you mean by that, Mr Penfold?" Grey asked.

A further delay revealed Penfold's reluctance to get someone who was a friend in trouble, but after a few seconds he seemed to decide that answering the police was the best thing he could do. "The last few months, Lewis has been different; he lost a job, I don't know what he was doing, or who he was working for, just that he lost the job, and was very bitter about it. He didn't speak about it to me, but I got the impression he was sacked, and accused of something, something I doubt very much he did – I can't imagine him doing anything wrong. He's had a hard time finding another job since – he hasn't said anything to me about it, but I know he's spoken to Jackie because she's mentioned it to me – and blames someone he used to work with.

"Apparently, whatever he was accused of, it's making it tough to get a job. He's normally happy and pretty easy going, although a bit off with the fairies if you know what I mean, but it seems the longer he's out of work, the more unhappy, resentful, and snappy he's becoming."

Reid and Grey exchanged significant looks; they knew who Rice had been working for, why he had lost the job, and who he most likely felt unhappy and resentful towards. What had seemed like a long shot was now looking like more of a possibility; while the information Penfold had given was unconfirmed, it did add to the possible motive they had for Lewis Rice being involved with Alice Keating's kidnapping.

"Thank you, Mr Penfold," Grey said. "You said Mr Rice has spoken to his neighbour on the other side about his situation."

Penfold nodded.

"Do you think she will be able to help us?"

Penfold shrugged uncertainly. "I couldn't say, I don't really know what you're after." He couldn't imagine that the friendly and helpful neighbour he knew was in trouble with the police, but he couldn't think why else the detectives were asking about Lewis, and that made him very curious.

Grey tried to think of a way to respond to that without giving away the purpose of their investigation, before he could, however, Reid spoke, "We suspect," he began, choosing his words carefully, "that Mr Rice has gotten himself mixed up in something he would have been better off avoiding; we're trying to determine if that is the case, and if so to get him out of the situation before it becomes too serious. I'm sorry, we can't say anything more than that right now; we really need to find Mr Rice, though, the sooner the better."

The two detectives endured the pensioner's scrutiny, as well as that of Buster, who had left his cushion to settle at his master's feet. Finally, Penfold decided to respond, "Jackie might know where he is," he told them. "If anyone does, it'll be her; she might also know if he's gotten himself mixed up in something he shouldn't have."

"Thank you, Mr Penfold. Please, there's no need for you to get up," Grey said when their host reached for his walking stick to help himself up out of his chair. "We can see ourselves out."

"What do you think?" Grey asked of Reid as the two made their way down the path.

"He definitely bears further investigation, if what Mr Penfold said is right. What Mr Skinner told me made Rice a possible suspect, now it seems his motive may have been confirmed." Doubt crossed his face then. "We still need to find out where he was yesterday afternoon; we have a possible motive, but that's no good if we can't come up with means and opportunity as well."

Grey nodded his agreement; as much as he wanted to nail down one of the kidnappers, it would be a major feather in his and Reid's caps, he didn't want to jump the gun. If Lewis Rice was one of the people they were looking for, they needed to make certain and gather as much evidence as they could before they took it to DI Stone.