Sadie had had no food since breakfast and attacked her dinner like she hadn’t eaten in a year. I used the time it took for her to eat her starter and main course to tell her about the Carney/Gill case and the afternoon’s events, almost without reply, apart from an occasional grunt. Nothing unusual there. Sadie never spoke until needed, though once she started, she usually had plenty to say. I hadn’t mentioned Davy Keenan, partly because he was off topic, but partly, too, because I had a feeling Sadie wouldn’t approve. She was my best friend. But she was a cop, and Davy’s past was too much of a grey area. I hadn’t mentioned Deirdre’s relationship to me either. I needed to know more about how I felt about her and the whole situation before I told anyone.

‘So, are you suspended?’ Sadie asked. ‘You done with that, by the way?’

She had finished her noodles and was eyeing my green curry.

‘No and no. Oh go on, eat it,’ I said.

I pushed my dinner across the table. I had no appetite, and it was never wise to get between Sadie and food when she was hungry.

‘You’ll be back at work tomorrow so, will you?’ Sadie said.

‘Not exactly.’

‘Go on.’

‘I’m on an unplanned holiday.’

‘Sounds like a suspension to me,’ Sadie said.

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘But the partners hadn’t a clue what had been happening, didn’t know anything about the case. I argued that I had no control over other people’s social media activity, that trending on Twitter couldn’t be considered misconduct absent any supporting information, that I appreciated that the firm was embarrassed but that fair procedures were required nonetheless and, given that they hadn’t carried out any investigation whatsoever, that they couldn’t suspend me. Not legally, anyway.’

‘Too right,’ Sadie said.

‘So I offered to take a week off with pay and they jumped at it. Turns out Gabriel had got a call from one of his golfing buddies, who just happens to be the festival board chairman, saying he wanted to meet Gabriel, to talk about me. Then two minutes later, he got a call from a journalist asking for a statement and how he felt about me trending on Twitter. The journo had to explain to Gabriel what that meant. He lost the plot. Started ranting, gave me a complete carpeting. I was in bits, but held it together till I got out of there. I got Tina to cancel my client appointments and gave her work to do while I’m gone. But it felt like moving deckchairs on the Titanic, Sadie.’

‘What do you mean?’