Kelly stared at her computer screen. A text from Matt informed her that he was on a train travelling north. She groaned inwardly: he hadn’t wasted any time. She was desperate for distraction and to avoid the problems of the moment; she wanted to be anywhere else right now, and was thankful that she was meeting Ted and Johnny for a quick lunch, though she wasn’t hungry.

She called Tilly Knight to see if she’d got hold of Alexandros. Tilly told her that she had, and that he’d taken his mother to the villa in the mountains, but before he left, he’d seen two men watching his house. No one outside of the Met knew that Skarparis was in Cyprus, except the brigadier and the colonel at the MoD.

Kelly went next door to talk to Rob, mainly because she couldn’t sit still, but also to ask if his matrix had thrown anything else up.

‘Those solicitors are digging their heels in,’ Rob told her. ‘I’ve spoken to our legal department, and special warrants apply to disputed wills. It’s complicated, that’s all, and might take a bit more time. If they were amenable, it would take minutes, but they’re making us jump through every hoop.’

‘I wonder why they would do that. Surely they wouldn’t be that awkward by choice. Do solicitors have solicitors?’

Rob laughed. ‘Yes! Can you believe it?’

‘Who are they? Can you find out who else they represent? I’m popping out to sort Mum’s house. I’ll be about an hour.’

She walked into town and saw Ted standing outside a sandwich shop. He looked like any other smart, respectable gentleman and she felt affection inside her chest. Before she reached him, Johnny arrived and she watched the two men embrace. They laughed at a shared joke and Ted put his hand on Johnny’s shoulder. She stopped walking. Her throat constricted and the unexpected wave of emotion overwhelmed her. The two men in her life, waiting for her arrival; decades and lives apart but together because of her. She composed herself and went to greet them.

Ted kissed her on her cheek and Johnny on the lips. It always amused her to see him in an urban environment because he stuck out like a sore thumb, with his flip-flops (albeit an expensive leather pair), shaggy hair and tanned skin. She’d never envisaged ending up with such a man, and she hadn’t really stopped to ponder his attractions. She walked in between the two of them and hooked her arms through theirs. She could swear that Ted stuck out his chest a little.

‘In here?’ she suggested. It was a small, locally run bakery that did fabulous baguettes. They went inside the shop and chose lunch to take away.