Paula was taken aback. ‘Well, women who look like you used to look. I’ll be honest, you don’t look like anybody’s potential victim these days. Not that you ever did,’ she added hastily, seeing the danger signs in Carol’s expression. ‘So, was that a surprise, Franklin showing up?’

‘Completely out of the blue.’ Carol smiled. ‘I was gobsmacked. I’d always thought if there was any chance of me being murdered, Franklin would be out there selling tickets.’

‘Only if it was happening well away from his patch.’

‘True. So if you’re not here to warn me to lock my doors and avoid the lonely graveyard at midnight, why are you here? I’m not naïve enough to think it’s because you missed me.’

‘But I do miss you. And not just because DCI Fielding is most emphatically not you.’ Paula accepted a cup of coffee and blew gently to cool it. ‘You made it clear you were done with Bradfield, done with the lot of us. And we all respected that. I respected that. Even though what I wanted was to be your friend. To take you out and get drunk with you. To listen to your pain. To bring you home and let Elinor cook you chicken pie and mash.’ To her annoyance, Paula could feel her throat constrict with all the tears she hadn’t shed with Carol.

‘I understand that. What I did was the only thing I knew how to do. The last time I thought I’d lost everything, I ran away. And it worked. I was able to heal myself enough to come back into the world. That’s what I’m trying to do this time.’ She opened a cupboard and took out a bottle of brandy and poured a slug into her coffee.

‘You drank too much last time too,’ Paula said, feeling the crack of thin ice under her.

Carol’s lip curled. ‘Tony always did over-share with you.’

Paula shook her head. ‘Tony never said a word out of place about you. I know you drank too much because you were still drinking too much when you set up the MIT. You think we didn’t know about the miniatures of vodka in your handbag and the quarter bottles in the desk drawer?’

Carol started as if she’d been slapped. ‘And you never said anything? You knew I was drinking on the job and you never said anything?’

‘Of course we didn’t. Even Sam the Snitch had more sense. Besides, why would we? It’s not like you were falling over drunk. It never interfered with the way you ran the team.’

‘Christ, I never realised you all knew. Call myself a detective?’ She turned away, embarrassed. ‘So, why are you here? Really? Because if you’d come here with the olive branch of friendship, Elinor would have sent a Tupperware box of home baking with you.’