Dilys Powell lives in Ironbridge and is the grandmother of Tyler Powell, one of the possible identities of the body found in the silver vault. Dilys reported Tyler missing by calling the police helpline.
Robin leaves a voicemail for Dilys, and receives a call back from a great-niece of Dilys’s. She tells Robin that Dilys is in hospital. Dilys eventually calls Robin back whilst she is on her way to view a house with Murphy. Dilys agrees to Robin and Strike visiting her to talk about Tyler (Chapter 27).
Strike and Robin meet in Ironbridge and walk up the steep hill towards Dilys’s house, but there is no answer when they knock at her door. Robin looks through the window and sees ‘an old lady-ish room of armchairs bearing antimacassars, bits of inexpensive china and a patterned purple carpet’ (Chapter 66). They set off towards Tyler’s parents’ house which is further up the hill, but on the way they meet Ian Griffiths who invites them into his house to wait for Dilys. Griffiths says that Dilys probably forgot they were coming as ‘she’s on a lot of medication’ as ‘she had a bad fall a couple of months ago’ (Chapter 66).
Griffiths eventually sees Dilys through the window and invites her in. ‘Dilys was a small saggy-cheeked woman with wispy white hair who looked frail and ill’ (Chapter 67). She is wearing a thick tartan coat and carrying a large black handbag. She walks slowly with a walking frame.
Dilys tells them that she overheard Tyler talking about silver on the phone, and then shortly afterwards leaves the room to visit the loo. Griffiths tells Strike and Robin that Dilys has ‘gone downhill a lot since Tyler left’ (Chapter 67) as he left Ironbridge so soon after his parents left for Florida. Robin mentions the great-niece who she had spoken to on the phone, but Griffiths asks her not to mention her to Dilys. ‘Dilys’s cat, that she was supposed to be feeding, died when Dilys was in hospital’ and Dilys hasn’t forgiven her (Chapter 67).
After Dilys returns she shows Robin WhatsApp messages that she received from Tyler. The last message she received was dated 16th June the previous year. Robin notices later messages from someone claiming to be Tyler on a new phone number, but Dilys tells Robin that she doesn’t believe that it really is him.
Strike and Robin ask Dilys more questions such as whether he had an interest in Freemasonry and if he had any distinguishing marks. Dilys becomes upset and seems ‘overwhelmed and a little confused’ and gets up and leaves (Chapter 67).