“Planet of the Apes!”

Maggie screamed “Yes!,” gave Penny a round of applause, said how incredibly clever she was, and they swapped places.

Jack laughed under his breath as Maggie slid down the arm of the chair he was sitting in. He squished up a little, but this chair wasn’t wide enough for the two of them. They didn’t care. They watched Penny stomp around the lounge, mouthing the word “Godzilla.” She was so bad at games! By eight o’clock, Penny was snoozing on the sofa, Charlie was in bed, and Maggie and Jack were in the kitchen tidying up after dinner.

Jack opened the fridge to put the butter away and his attention was caught by the shelf full of high-protein, high-vitamin, high-mineral, life-prolonging milkshakes.

“Thanks, Maggie,” he whispered.

“What for?”

“For buying a month’s supply of these. Imagine if you’d bought a week’s worth. Imagine what that would have been like for Mum to see.” Maggie turned him round and he was crying. “I couldn’t do this without you.”

“You don’t have to do anything without me. Ever. And Penny will stay with us for as long as she needs.”

“They’re in the nursery . . .” he said half to himself.

This thought had come from him trying to work out how they were all going to fit into a two-bedroom flat; but it instantly turned into a much more disturbing thought.

“He’s going to die in the nursery, Mags. You hear, don’t you, of babies and kids sensing stuff that’s gone on before them. What if Dad—?”

Maggie hugged Jack. “Your dad is a loving man with a beautiful soul. A room is a room, but if Charlie hangs around . . . I think we’d be blessed to have him looking over our little one.”

Jack began laughing at his irrational thoughts. As Maggie hugged him, she couldn’t tell where the giggling ended and the crying began, nor did she care. When Jack was ready, he pulled away.

“We do need three rooms, though. When the time’s right, I’ll ask Mum what’s left from their pensions and the sale of the bungalow—and I’m up for promotion.”

“As long as we’re all happy,” Maggie said, “everything will work out.”

Jack loved her impractical take on finances, but one of them had to be sensible.

Jack walked the last few miles back to the police station to collect the car. It was just getting dark, and the streets were alive with a mix of commuters and drinkers. He used this time to talk himself into giving the women up, getting his promotion and living happily ever after with Maggie. He liked them, but he loved Maggie and that’s all that really mattered in the end. Telling Ridley about the phone call from Julia to Darren would be simple. But he’d need to work out how to get the women’s new names into the mix. He’d need to lie about how he got his hands on the notebook, and why it wasn’t found in the raid. He’d pretty much decided to make Gareth hand it in and pretend to have found it in his dad’s bedroom at the care home. That would work.