She heard the steady sound of his footsteps walking down the hall towards the kitchen. She crossed the room, so she could be closer to the knife rack. It was ridiculous to think of taking one of those knives and using it against him. But everything felt ridiculous and wrong suddenly.

‘Emer.’ He smiled when he saw her. ‘I wasn’t sure you’d be still up. How’s your evening been?’

‘Weird,’ she said.

‘Weird how?’

He walked over to the fridge and took out a beer. Only one. Every night, the same routine. A single beer at the end of his working day. Except who worked until almost eleven o’clock on a Friday evening?

‘Where have you been?’

She watched as he carefully poured the beer into his glass before answering.

‘Dinner with some of the people I’m hoping will invest in my campaign.’ He took a sip of his beer. ‘Ah. That’s better. They’re a boring lot, but schmoozing is an important part of my job, as you well know. So, what happened tonight that was so weird?’

He crossed the room until he was standing opposite her, on the other side of the oversized island in the oversized kitchen.

‘A woman phoned the house.’ Emer watched him closely to see how he reacted. ‘She said she was my cousin.’

‘What cousin?’

‘You remember, my uncle Frank’s daughter, Dee. The journalist.’

‘And she just called tonight out of the blue? Any idea what she wanted?’

He took another sip of his beer. Was it her imagination, or did he seem to be drinking more quickly than normal?

‘Both her parents have died,’ Emer said. ‘I think she’s lonely.’

‘Doesn’t she have family of her own?’

‘I don’t know.’

She hadn’t asked Dee any of the questions she should have asked. Instead, the entire conversation had focused on both women trying to understand who had contacted Dee, and why they’d done it.

Robert cleared his throat.

‘So let me get this straight. Your cousin – someone you’ve never spoken to until this evening – phoned because she’s lonely, or she’s missing her dead parents, or whatever. But she didn’t actually tell you anything about herself? Are you sure it wasn’t some sort of prank call, Emer? People can be very cruel, you know.’

‘It wasn’t a prank,’ Emer said. ‘She knew too much about me and my family.’

Even as she said this, she started to have doubts. Because why should she trust some stranger instead of Robert, who had loved her and taken care of her better than her own father ever had?

‘Emer…’

‘What?’

‘I’m a high-profile politician, love. You need to be careful when strangers call the house. There are all sorts of people who’d love nothing more than to dig up a bit of dirt on me.’