Leilie smiled a little. A ghost of a smile of happy recollection crossed her face and was gone. ‘I don’t know how you know,’ she said, ‘but yes, she was OK and asleep, and oh God, the relief of it. I’d been picturing her lying there with blood on her and I don’t know what.’

‘So all you had to do then was explain to Paddy why you’d come home.’

‘I told him I felt ill,’ said Leilie carefully. ‘I said I felt rotten and I’d got one of my migraines coming.’

‘No, you didn’t. He wasn’t there.’

‘What d’you mean, wasn’t there? He was there! Him and Tony and Pip and Johnny, they were in here playing cards. I said to Paddy, I feel rotten, I had to come home. I’m going to have a lay-down, I said, and I went into the bedroom and laid down.’

‘Leilie, when you came in the flat was empty. You know it was empty. You know Pip Monkton’s lying and you know his story won’t stand up for two seconds once you tell the truth that at five to ten this flat was empty. Listen to me, Leilie. Paddy will go away for quite a long time over this business. It’ll be a chance for you and young Ginge – er, Matthew, to make a new life. You don’t want him round you for ever, do you? Ruining your life, beating up your kids? Do you, Leilie?’

She lifted the baby in her arms. She walked the length of the room and half back again as if he were restless and needed soothing instead of peacefully asleep. In front of Wexford she stood still, looking at him, and he got to his feet.

‘We’ll come and fetch you in the morning, Leilie,’ he said, ‘and take you to the police station where I’ll want you to make a statement. Maybe two statements. One about taking Karen and one about Paddy not being here when you came back last night.’

‘I won’t say a thing about that,’ she said.

‘It might be that we wouldn’t proceed with any charge against you for taking Karen.’

‘I don’t care about that!’

He hated doing it. He knew he had to. ‘A woman who knew what you knew about Paddy and who still exposed a child to him, someone else’s child – how’ll that sound in court, Leilie? When they know you’re living with Paddy again? And when they hear your record?’

Her face had gone white and she clasped Matthew against her. ‘They wouldn’t take him away from me? They wouldn’t make a what-d’you-call-it?’

‘A care order? They might.’

‘Oh God, oh God. I promised myself I’d stick by Paddy all my life . . .’

‘Romantic promises, Leilie, they haven’t much to do with real life.’ Wexford moved a little away from her. He went to the window. It was quite dark outside now. ‘They told me at the Andromeda that you came back at half-past ten. You’d been away an hour and there had been complaints so they sacked you.’