‘So odd,’ she said abruptly. ‘That he’s not here.’ She glanced around the kitchen: then through the open door to the study.

‘I know.’ It was the first time, I realized, she’d been back. I let her take in the lack of him, with all its complicated resonances. Sadness, perhaps, for the father-daughter relationship she’d never had. After a bit, she came back to me.

‘No word from the police, I suppose?’

‘No. The best they can do is assume a petty thief who bungled a burglary. Petty enough to wear gloves, though; he left no prints. Oh, and the sergeant was sharp enough to deduce that he made his entrance and getaway over the wall.’ I jerked my head garden-wards. ‘Note the trampled hebe bush and the footprints in my flower bed. Even I had spotted that.’

She shook her head. ‘Pathetic. D’you know, I read in the paper the other day that only seven per cent of crimes are solved in London. Seven per cent!’ Her eyes boggled. Then she shrugged. ‘Still. What do we care.’ She gulped, though, as she said it.

I saw her gaze fall on his desk in the corner, which I’d tidied and cleared. All his papers and files had gone. It had looked so empty when I’d done it, I’d put a vase of flowers on it. Then I’d taken them away. It had seemed a bit crass, somehow. Like a jibe. I’d taken his comfortable chair away, too, with its squashed velvet cushion; put it in the cellar. I went and sat beside her on the sofa. ‘Imo, you know what you said yesterday? At the funeral?’ I said gently, breaking into her thoughts.

‘What?’ She came back to me, her face perhaps paler than when she’d arrived.

‘About coming back to London. Your posting, with the bank. Is that – you know – coincidence?’

‘It is, actually. I was offered it a month ago. I mean, it’s a promotion, for sure. Investment Associate with a really nice team. And I thought – come on, girl. You can do this. Confront your demons. Live in the same city as him.’

I nodded. ‘And now?’

‘Well, now I’m glad I’d made that decision while he was alive.’ She turned her cool blue gaze on me. ‘Glad I can say that. That I was going to be brave.’

I smiled but my eyes filled. ‘Yes. Well done you.’ I squeezed her arm. My heart wrenched for my gorgeous, bold, big-hearted girl, who’d done so bloody well, despite the obstacles. But there was another elephant in the room too, not in the shape of her father. Something Tess had let slip, which I’d already suspected.

‘And the only reason I didn’t tell you earlier, when I took the job,’ she said reading my thoughts, ‘was because I knew you’d worry. Knew you’d think – oh God, what’s happened.’