She’d arranged to meet Emma at eight downstairs. Her junior was already waiting. A car had been organised to transport them to the office every day for as long as they were here in the city, and Kelly winced at the waste of money. Looking at Emma, it would also be a lot more fun to see her on a Tube train. Her colleague was starry-eyed and couldn’t wait to get started.

‘There’s a Starbucks on the corner. I’m not going anywhere without one.’

‘How do you know, guv?’

‘It’s a wild guess. I’m joking; this is where I used to work.’

Emma followed her. There was indeed a Starbucks on the corner, and their driver was instructed to wait. The streets were rammed, and Emma gaped around her, hypnotised by the sheer volume of busy people on the move, determined and focused, barking into mobile phones and gulping coffee. Kelly smiled. The queue in the coffee shop was long and made up of impatient, sullen, stressed individuals, shifting from foot to foot, peering round the person in front, like cars trying to find a way through a traffic jam.

Emma said hello to a few people, but soon stopped doing it when she received only glares in return.

‘Why is everyone so angry?’ she whispered.

Kelly shrugged her shoulders. It was true. She’d never seen it from an outsider’s point of view, because she’d always been in the thick of it. But it was glaringly obvious now. Rudeness, impatience and tetchiness were commonplace and normal. Finally they reached the front of the queue and placed their orders. Emma picked up a Danish pastry with apricot, and Kelly chose a pain au chocolat. It was a lethal habit to slide into, and she kept telling herself that they’d be home in Cumbria soon, and she could run it off.

Armed with their sustenance, they got into the waiting car and it set off. They hit traffic straight away, and didn’t arrive in Hendon until almost 8.50. They could have walked quicker; in fact, Kelly would suggest it tomorrow.

DCI Matt Carter had briefed them with an update last night, and today would be their first day of actual lead-chasing. The array of screens, audio equipment, PNC access points, interactive whiteboards and bodies dashing from one office to the next startled Emma, and Kelly strode in front of her, showing her the way. She knew the building well, and it was already beginning to feel like home again.