That was forty minutes ago. She wondered about the wife and baby. Sleepless nights, loss of sex drive, breast feeding, nappy changes, tantrums and the sudden lack of freedom. Enough to turn a guy away from his exhausted wife to a twenty-year-old student. It didn’t take much for men to fuck around. Hannah thought about all the times some married guy had chatted her up in a bar, even when she was there with Indy, obviously a couple. Oh, to have the confidence of a middle-aged white man, honestly, these guys acted like the world belonged to them.

It was afternoon and the high school was coming out, streams of teenagers in black and white, just the red flashes of their ties marking them out from any other kids in the city. Boys were mucking about 152and jumping into the road, girls pulling on short skirts and covering their mouths at something outrageous one of their mates said. They all gave the hearse a wide berth, some peeking in wide-eyed and turning away when Hannah held their gaze.

She thought of her own school days, the safety in finding your own small group of friends, bolstering yourselves against the hard world. Hannah’s coming-out was relatively painless and she was grateful for that. Her three best friends were all straight and fine with it, but there was a slight distance afterwards, like they couldn’t talk about boys in front of her, or maybe they worried she was about to jump their bones. On the surface all was fine, she socialised, hung out, went to prom, but she was glad when uni came around and she could start from scratch. Maybe life needed that, the chance every few years to start somewhere new, where no one knows you and you can redefine yourself, untied to the past.

The school kids had thinned out, but still no one came out of the Longhorn house. The front garden was tiny, a lot of them in the row were converted to parking spaces. Somewhere to park your car was prime real estate in this city, Hannah had already pumped umpteen coins into the meter for the privilege of sitting here.

The door of Peter’s house opened and the two cops stepped out. They turned on the doorstep, Peter in the doorway holding the frame, and the three of them smiled, sharing a joke. They talked for a few moments, the body language of new friends, then Peter reached out and shook both their hands.

Hannah got out of the hearse and strode to the house.

‘Hey.’

All of them turned. She could see now that Peter’s wife was in the doorway too, behind him and to the side, supporting him all the way. When Peter saw Hannah he tried to usher his wife inside, but she stood her ground. She was still carrying that bloody baby on her hip.