‘Really? I’m not sure I have time for Christmas.’ Hawkins tried to sound like she was joking.

‘You don’t, huh?’ A few seconds of silence, then, ‘How was your triple homicide?’

‘Complicated.’

Mike lifted the chopping board, scraping what looked like diced herbs into the pan. ‘Who’s on?’

‘Just Amala and Aaron at the moment.’

His eyebrows rose. ‘You’ll need more than that.’

‘Maybe,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘But it could still be a quick one, if there’s been good progress this afternoon. We’re catching up properly in the morning.’

‘Any suspects?’

‘Not yet.’ She hesitated, reluctant to elaborate. He was clearly still sore about earlier, and further reminders that they were no longer working together would only stoke discord.

Six weeks ago, Chief Superintendent Vaughn had approached Hawkins for the names of officers who might be interested in a secondment on one of the recently formed narcotics task forces, and she had surprised herself by instantly mentioning Mike.

Thinking about it afterwards she realized that, without her having wanted to acknowledge it, her relationship had begun to suffer from overexposure. After almost a year of living in the same house, working on the same team, even sharing car journeys, the situation had become disturbingly claustrophobic.

Previously the unbridled chaos of work and various dramas – including extended visits from her father, then her sister, nephew and niece – had cloaked the issue, but in recent weeks it had been just the two of them.

Cracks had started to show.

She also knew Mike had always seen himself working for the Drugs Directorate, so when she’d given him first refusal on Vaughn’s offer, he jumped at the chance. They’d been working on separate teams for over a month.

At first the adjustment seemed to help, giving them both valuable space and reducing the frequency of their fallings-out. Maguire seemed to enjoy the work, and their time together became more valuable. Suddenly they were getting on again.

She should have known it wouldn’t last.

Unfortunately, the demands of her job were relentless, and not having Mike around only increased Hawkins’ workload, while Mike’s hours on his new team increased steadily in line with his experience. His vacant position still hadn’t been filled and, almost straight away, precious breathing space turned into pretty much constant separation. Neither of them had said as much, but Hawkins suspected Mike now held the same opinion as her.

That the whole thing had been a mistake.

Letting her best DI go, at a time when ongoing cuts forced the Met to cope with ever-decreasing personnel and resources, meant there wasn’t time any more for a social life outside of work.