Justine laughed. ‘You have no idea just how caring he is. I am sure she won’t mind me telling you this, but he was once my mother’s lover. She was an exceptionally beautiful woman then.’ She tossed her hair back. ‘I’ve always been told how fortunate I am to have inherited her looks. McDermott was deeply in love with her for many years.’ She shrugged. ‘Anyway, I digress . . . Where was I?’

Jane sipped her coffee and had another uneasy feeling as Justine used a finger to go up and down the page of her notes.

‘Right, now then . . . I can’t give you the exact time I found a parking space. I didn’t know how long I was going to be there so I put in some change and I thought that it would be enough because it was about 3:45 p.m. My intention was to go and tell him exactly what I was going to do, then leave. I went in, and he seemed surprised to see me. I said we needed to have an adult conversation because I had reached a decision not only for myself, but for Clara. He laughed but when I continued to tell him my intentions, he said that even if I attempted to get full custody, he would be able to prove that I was mentally unstable. At that point, I opened my handbag and told him I could prove that he was a cocaine addict and that he was also stuffing himself with amphetamines.’

Justine picked up a pencil and began to scribble on the page as she described how he had laughed and told her that he could consume any amount of drugs and still functional normally. He tipped out the contents of the cocaine packet and used a bank note to snort up a line in front of her.

‘ “There, you see,” he said to me. “You don’t stand a hope in hell of ever getting rid of me, and if you attempt to stop my access to Clara, I will have you certified.” ’ Justine’s eyes filled with tears. ‘He would drive me mad like that because he could be vicious and cruel, but then he would become like a child, needing me to care for him, and that’s why I always forgave him. But on this occasion I waited because I was hoping the combination of what I put into the cocaine would quiet him down.’

Jane held up her hand. ‘What did you mean by “combination”?’

‘I crushed up my sleeping tablets and mixed it with the cocaine.’

Jane looked up from her notes. ‘When you went to see him at his flat, do you remember what he was wearing?’