Kathleen held the letter out to Maura. ‘I did, Alice, because I knew that something was badly wrong. When did Peggy ever disappear from her own house? Or faint down at the rent office, eh? She’s quite obviously not been managing, but she never breathed a word, Maura. I knew things couldn’t be right, but they didn’t seem to be that wrong. Nothing that her fat lazy arse of a husband couldn’t put right with a bit of hard work. I think she’s been lost without you, Maura. You understood her better than any of us.’

Maura opened the letter. ‘She fainted at the rent office? I’ve never known Peggy to faint at all. She’s as strong as an ox.’

‘Exactly, that’s what I said to Dr Cole. She was a nervous wreck. I thought she must have been down at the office, paying the rent. And this morning she was shaking like a leaf when she came to ask for a loan for food.’

‘Did you give her one?’ asked Maura.

‘Of course I did, but I’ve been giving her a loan every week and she’s not paid a penny back. I gave her one and six for food. Paddy hasn’t worked a full week since you left and I think it’s just all got on top of her.’

Maura fell quiet as she read the letter. ‘It says the arrears are over a month?’

Kathleen nodded. ‘You have that look in your eye, Maura, do you have a plan?’

Maura drained the last of the whiskey-heavy tea in her cup. ‘Have you ever know me not to, Kathleen?’

*

Peggy had made her way along the lower dock wall. It was so dark, she could barely see. She thought of the kids as she looked up the steps to the houses above, feeling lost and bewildered.

‘Oi, what are you doing, missus?’ a woman called out to her from the shadows of the administration building, which was now in darkness. ‘Come here!’