Dan had to read it through three times before fully understanding the code that Patrick had adopted in his letter. He was now permanently in a wheelchair. He couldn’t write himself. Pete Jackson and Bob Murray were coping with the running of the business, yet he went to all the trouble of going into the office so that Betty could type him out a letter. Why? Because he didn’t want Katie to type it. He didn’t want her to find out what he knew.

Dan tilted back the wooden chair and linked his hands behind his head. He knew now that he had made the right decision to return to London. Patrick had known instinctively what had taken place between him and Katie. He should have known that there was never the need to tell Lie No. 1 in the first place.

Although having been in constant contact with his mother since his return to London, Dan had never actually gone to see her. He knew that he had to tell her face-to-face about his marriage split-up, and he was just putting off the fateful day. However, he had always promised that he would bring in the New Year with her and her friends in Cavendish Rise, and it was therefore with a certain amount of foreboding that he let himself into her flat at nine o’clock that evening.

Looking up as he entered the stiflingly hot little sitting room, Battersea Gran levered herself out of the armchair from where she had been watching her television with the volume shut off.

“Hullo, love,” she said as he bent down to give her a kiss on either cheek. “Well, let’s have a look at you.” She stood back and studied him with as much pleasure as she might have done having just won the star prize on the Wheel of Fortune. “My word, that skiing holiday has done you the world of good. You’ve certainly got wonderful colour in your cheeks.”

“We were lucky. The sun shone every day,” Dan replied.

“Well, I’m sure that you’ll really be feeling the cold now,” she said, stepping forward and rubbing the arm of his leather jacket between her fingers to gauge its thermal qualities. “You know, Dan, you’re of an age now when you shouldn’t be bothering about dressing up in trendy gear. You should go and buy yourself a good cardy. That’s what your father always wore, and he hardly had a day’s illness in his life.”

Dan burst out laughing and grabbed his mother and gave her a long hug. “It’s great to see you, Mum. I really have missed you.”

“And I’ve missed you too, son.”

Dan took off his jacket and glanced at the television screen. “So what are you watching?”