‘Oh, you know. It’s a big adjustment. Not sure how much longer I’ll be able to live with my mother before Gid’s sent to arrest me.’ A startled expression reminded Robin that Efie had a tendency to take what people said at face value. Not something she and Gid had in common, thank god: he wouldn’t have lasted an hour in Homicide. ‘Only joking,’ she said. ‘My mum’s lovely. I’m just not sure anyone should live with their parents past the age of eighteen, you know?’

‘Totally,’ said Efie. ‘Coffee? I’ll bung the kettle on.’

From the corridor came the sound of the back door opening and the thud, thud of shoes coming off. Feet padded in their direction.

Gid’s face arranged itself into happy surprise but not before she’d seen the momentary Oh, no. Fuck, Robin thought.

‘Hi,’ he said. ‘How are you?’ A brief hug.

‘Doing well,’ she said. ‘Scaring your wife that I might commit matricide but otherwise good.’ She’d made the decision last night not to say anything about Corinna. Gid knew her best mate was back in Brum and that, along with Maggie, she’d been one of the things that made it bearable to go back for a while, but he’d never met her. Homicide would know about the case, given that Josh was wanted and suspected to have left the Birmingham area via a station with a direct line to London but – unless DI Webster and his team had contacted them about her, which, she’d admitted to herself with alarm, was very possible – they wouldn’t know about her connection to it. If she could stop those two circles overlapping, she’d do it.

‘The boys are getting so big,’ she said, looking out to where Mark and Seth were now taking turns to kick the ball into a netted goal. ‘Seth was four when I met you.’

‘I know, it’s crazy, isn’t it? How’s Len?’

‘Okay. Shopping with her friends – or actually, drinking cappuccinos and gossiping, I expect. Thirteen going on twenty-five.’

They chatted about anodyne stuff – how the boys were doing at school, a reading scheme Efie had set up at the children’s home where she volunteered – until the coffee was made and poured. Then Efie took her mug and pointed to the window. ‘I’ll go and see how the boys are getting on, give you a moment.’

Robin waited until they saw her go down the steps to the lawn. ‘Sorry for showing up like this,’ she said. ‘I was coming to London anyway and I—’

‘Where’s Lennie doing her shopping?’

‘Westfield,’ she admitted.

‘So you made a special trip back out here.’

She considered a cover story but it was futile. ‘I wanted to talk to you.’