If she carried on like this, Jacko Vance would have scored the ultimate victory. He’d set out on his campaign of vengeance with the aim of making her life not worth living. She hadn’t been able to see past her grief to understand how well he’d succeeded. But the last few days had helped her to comprehend what had happened to her.

If she carried on like this, Jacko Vance would have won.

It wasn’t only her professional life that had been poisoned by his actions. He’d managed to estrange her and Tony. Vance was the worst kind of clever psychopath; he’d understood how things would play out downstream of his actions. He’d worked out how to cause them maximum pain. And she’d walked right into the trap. She’d blamed Tony when really, the only person to blame was Vance himself.

Carol raised the glass to eye level and stared long and hard at the drink. It was time for her to make some changes. Her life wasn’t over yet.

Slowly and steadily, Carol stood up and poured the vodka down the sink.

Dawn broke in a sky that seemed almost as watery as the canal basin. Grey, pearl and eggshell ran into each other in an uncertain muddle of sky and cloud. Tony sat on the roof of his boat up by the bows. His hands were folded round a cup of instant soup that had stopped steaming a while ago. His face was drawn and tired, his eyes gritty with lack of sleep. He’d returned to the boat shortly after one in the morning, so tired his very bones hurt. But as soon as he’d climbed into bed, sleep had slipped from him, leaving him restless and weary. He’d tried to fight the wakefulness, but he’d eventually given up and come outside to watch the orange glow of street lights lose their hold on the sky.

He’d had the sort of experience he could learn from, no doubt about that. He would better understand some of his patients as a result. Still, it was something he could have done without. Except that it had brought Carol back into his life, however briefly. He took her words at face value – that she wasn’t there for him but for the sake of justice. It had always been what drove her. He wasn’t arrogant enough to think that was a smokescreen for her true feelings. He knew her true feelings. She blamed him and she couldn’t bear his presence. And yet, if he could be certain she’d be there every day, he’d have settled for a life sentence.

He’d felt on the verge of tears ever since he’d returned to the boat. He knew it was partly because he was tired but it was also because he’d lost her again.