‘Yeah, but you don’t have kids, do you, Saoirse? So what the fuck do you know?’ The words shot out of her mouth with a savagery that she instantly regretted.

‘Hey, love.’ Saoirse’s face changed suddenly and when Gabriela turned she saw Callum standing in the doorway, his eyes wide with worry. ‘Your mum and I were just telling each other a story. How’re you doing, is your programme finished? Do you want me to put something else on?’

‘I’ll do it,’ Gabriela said, standing and walking across the garden to pick up Callum.

Saoirse must have slipped out while she was busy putting on Tom and Jerry, for when she turned back to where she had been sitting, Saoirse was gone.

‘Darling, have you seen Aunty Saoirse?’ Gabriela asked Sadie, who was sitting on her bed flicking through a picture book. When she looked up, there was a sadness in her eyes and Gabriela wondered if her daughter had heard them talking.

‘She went to see Uncle Jim and Daddy at the pub,’ Sadie said.

‘Oh yes,’ Gabriela said brightly. ‘I think she said, I must have forgotten.’

After a pause, she asked, ‘Are you OK?’

Sadie nodded.

‘You had a good birthday?’

‘Yep.’

‘Do you want to come downstairs, watch cartoons with Callum and me?’

She shook her head.

Gabriela inhaled. ‘OK. Well, we’re downstairs if you change your mind.’

Callum fell asleep on the sofa, less than an hour later. As she carried him up to his room, she peeked through Sadie’s door and saw the light was off.

Tucking Callum in, she headed straight to bed, worn out by the afternoon’s wine and the argument with Saoirse. She was already asleep by the time the three of them returned from the pub that night. When she woke up the next morning, Saoirse and Jim had gone.

Gabriela’s mind was dragged back into the present by the sound of her phone. For a moment, she imagined Madeleine’s number flashing on the screen, returning her call, the one in which she had asked her to ring back, that she had something she needed to tell her … Shit. What would she say? Madeleine would be back in London soon and she wouldn’t be easily fobbed off. As far as she was concerned the two of them were still committed to investigating Emsworth with their two-pronged approach. Now that she wasn’t there in the office, Gabriela could legitimately bow out – except for the problem of what to tell Madeleine in terms of why she had left, and to explain away the voicemail she had left.