‘Jack was – and still is – brilliant. But he lost his way, and it was only when he learned that someone he cared deeply about was in terrible trouble that he came back – returned from the dead, if you like. He pulled off a stunt that saved a young child’s life but at the same time he put himself in danger. Everyone had believed he was dead – especially the criminals he was involved with – but he risked exposing the fact that he was alive, and there was every chance he would end up with a bullet in his head.’

Tom looked at Louisa again to see if she appreciated how serious this was.

‘He got away, and only a handful of people – good people – knew he was alive. That wasn’t the end of it, though. We had to fake the deaths of a woman, a teenage girl and a baby. Jack set it up, and I helped.’

Louisa’s eyes opened wide. She would understand the implications of Tom faking a death.

‘Jack got them away and I had to tell my superior officer what had happened, expecting her to throw the book at me. She didn’t. She covered for me.’

‘So if this came out, what would happen?’

‘If the enforcer of the gang Jack was involved with knew he was alive, he would use every person in his network to track him down and kill him.’

‘And you, Tom? What would happen to you?’

‘I would probably end up in prison. My boss, Philippa Stanley, would lose her job at the very least. Becky knows too, although we could probably hide that.’

Tom didn’t want to say any more. He could fill in the gaps about what Jack had been doing and how he had been communicating with him some other time. But he wanted to make Louisa understand why he had kept this from her.

He was about to speak when Louisa said, ‘You didn’t tell me because you thought if things didn’t work out for us, I would have some kind of hold over you. Is that it?’ He could hear the hurt in her voice.

‘Louisa, I never thought for one moment that you would use anything I told you against me. I don’t believe you have a malicious bone in your body. If it had been my secret and no one else was involved, I would have told you weeks ago. But it wasn’t. In the end, I couldn’t live with the fact that I was keeping something from you, and that’s why I decided to tell you tonight. It was the ultimate sign of my commitment to you.’

Tom waited. He still wasn’t sure which way this was going to go. He was tempted to keep adding explanations, but he needed to give her space to think.