All of them dismissed, written off, expunged from the record. Not all of them, she could admit, with good reason. Or even reasonable justification. Robin Lyons and the Scorched Earth Policy. She was like Stalin, packing her enemies off to Siberia, doctoring the photographs. The only people she’d never pushed away were Corinna and Josh. If she were alive, she’d call Rin now.

Josh is a real killer.

Samir’s words ran cold fingers down her spine. Until he’d said it, she’d been sure: Josh would never have hurt Corinna or any woman. He’d killed that man because of what happened to his mother. But last night she’d understood for the first time – really understood – that he’d killed that man because he’d lost control.

What if he’d lost control with Corinna? What if it had been happening for years, all the time she, Robin, had been in London, oblivious to the cuts and the bruises, never around to need lies about where they came from?

Because when the crunch came, Corinna had kept her at arm’s length. The loans, the cuts – for all their history, she hadn’t told her. Why?

This idea you seem to have that relying on anyone else is a sign of weakness.

But it wasn’t a sign of weakness, was it? It was actual weakness. Rely on other people and you risk them letting you down. And they do. They do.

With a turn in her stomach, she thought about that: her insistence on self-sufficiency, toughness. I expect it’s a good thing to be hard in your line of work. Had she unwittingly sent a message to Corinna that problems were unacceptable? Surely not – look at the chaos that had been Lennie’s arrival, how vulnerable she’d been then. She’d messed up so badly that time, she’d needed Rin to move in with her for a year and a half, for god’s sake.

But that was thirteen years ago now. She’d recovered, made a success of herself, at least for a bit. For a decade or so, apparently iron-clad, she’d been charging round, rising through the ranks, doing it all herself. She’d assumed Corinna knew that the armour was borrowed, but maybe, over time – hire purchase – she’d come to own it. Had she made it impossible for Rin to get through to her? Or made her believe she had to put on her own armour? Armour that hadn’t been bulletproof.

With an echo of the shame she’d felt at the time, she remembered what her dad had told Thomas and Patel about her constant need to prove herself. Was it true?