The week Rin’s dad’s body had finally thrown in the towel, she’d told UCL she had a family emergency, stuffed a few clothes in a bag and got on a train. She hadn’t told her parents she was back; she’d stayed with Di and Rin in King’s Heath, sleeping on the sofa-bed, driving them to the QE in Di’s car, making run after run to the café then the after-hours vending machine. How many hours had she sat in the waiting room that week? Twenty? Thirty? She’d come to know it well, to recognize newbies by the shock in their eyes, the long-haulers who came every day, living on crumbs of hope: a dose lowered by half a point, the movement of a hand.

The doors clicked open and the receptionist reappeared. Behind her was Di, who pulled Robin into a fierce hug, face against her shoulder, huge boobs crushed against her stomach. Twenty-five years on, Di’s height, or lack of it, still took Robin by surprise. Whenever she hadn’t seen her for a while, she forgot, because Di was not a small person in any other way.

She stood back, holding Robin at arm’s length. She’d worn her make-up every day the week Trevor died – ‘He liked to see me with my face on’ – but not today. Di’s face was round and even twenty years ago, it had looked pillowy, slightly puffy, as if she had a layer of water under the skin, ‘like a water bed,’ said Rin. The last time Robin had seen her, she’d thought she was ageing well, crinkling in a kindly way. Now it was as if a plug had been pulled, the water drained away, and her face looked pouchy, the skin swagged beneath eyes that were cried-out and tiny. She couldn’t have washed her hair since it happened.

‘Will told me you were coming so I waited,’ she said.

‘You shouldn’t have. You must be exhausted.’

‘I wanted to see you. You haven’t slept, have you? You’ve got to try and sleep, Robin.’ Ever the nurse.

‘You too.’

‘Tonight. I’m going to try, anyway – they’ve given me something. I wanted to stay again but I’ve got to keep myself together for him, haven’t I?’ She glanced towards the locked doors. ‘I can’t go to pieces; he’ll need me.’

‘Is there any change?’

‘His blood oxygen’s slightly better tonight but … There’s such a long way to go. Will told you they’re keeping him in the coma for now?’

‘Yes, he did.’ She hesitated. ‘Di, have you heard anything from the police?’

‘Have you?’ Her focus sharpened.

‘No. But I’m probably the last person they’d tell.’

A moment’s confusion. ‘Ah god, love, I forgot. She told me about your trouble, of course. Corinna.’

The name hung in the air between them.