She lay back on the bed and felt the breeze coming in from the window. There wasn’t a sound outside in the empty fields but she could smell life. Soon, the day and night would be equal and the spirits would command superiority. The year was dying, but inside, she was emerging with life anew, and a fire that she dreamed of lighting every time she thought of him.

A single fly landed on her blanket. It looked fat and about to pop. The place needed a good clean, it had begun to smell. She reached her hand under the bed covers and slid it into her underwear, where it was soft and warm.

The boy’s eyes filled her head, and she began to feel hot. Her skin tingled, and she moved her hand back and forth.

‘Callum,’ she whispered. ‘I know your father.’

Chapter 15

September was the month of colour in the Lake District. The trees turned various shades of orange and red, and the mountainside revealed scars of brown and grey as the lush greenery disappeared. Kelly and Johnny discussed their holiday plans as they ran. Running together was an impromptu way to meet and chew over whatever needed thrashing out. It could be Johnny letting off steam about an injured child on the mountainside, whose parents were unceremoniously unapologetic for taking them up there. It could be a case – as was recently – of a deceased teenager trying to traverse the Striding Edge route on Helvellyn while taking a selfie. He lost his footing and fell eight hundred feet with no protective gear. His head injuries killed him. His dad watched him fall.

For Kelly’s part, it was mostly frustrations involving injustice. Often with domestics in particular, she found herself sitting in court, giving evidence about bruising or witness testimony, only to have the victim change her plea, or an expert challenge the definition of ‘force’, and her case, so lovingly prepared over hundreds of man hours, unceremoniously kicked out. She’d been thrown side glances by criminals getting away with it more times than she cared to remember as she left Carlisle Crown Court. Kelly hated court appearances. They were never certain, and in her line of work, certainty was key. She dealt in black and white: nothing grey in court was getting past the jury.

They both needed to get away. Johnny had worked non-stop for months now, volunteering to be on call, as the mountain rescue found itself increasingly short staffed. Kelly hadn’t taken a proper break since her mother’s death in January.