Dipping a deep-fried potato wedge into mayo and garlic, Cooper exercised his listening skills. It wasn’t difficult in Liz’s presence. She never bored him, because she never took herself too seriously. At the end of her whinge, she would gaze at him and burst out laughing. He treasured those moments, when they seemed to be connecting at some level that was beyond any words.

‘We’re still the forgotten department,’ she said. ‘The Cinderellas of the division.’

‘There was only one Cinderella,’ said Cooper. ‘The others were Ugly Sisters.’

And Liz laughed. ‘That describes my colleagues perfectly.’

Liz chose Swagman’s Tucker, while Cooper passed over the Bruce Burgers and hesitated between Bondi Chicken or Dingo Dog. Waiting for him to decide, Liz took a drink of wine and gazed out of the window at Granby Road. She lived just off Fly Hill, only a few minutes’ walk away, in a three-storey terraced cottage she rented from her uncle.

Cooper found himself distracted from the menu by her profile against the lights from the street outside. He would be happy just to sit and look at her for a while, listening to her talk, and forget about the Dingo Dog.

But then he realized how hungry he was, and ordered the Outback Bruce Burger after all.

‘I hear you’re getting a new superintendent,’ said Liz.

‘Yes. She arrives on Tuesday, but she’s already making her presence felt.’

‘Are there going to be changes?’

‘You bet.’

‘One of the guys said he thought Diane Fry might be leaving.’

‘Did he?’

Cooper was completely taken aback. There had been several occasions when he’d thought Fry might head off into the blue. Fry had even hinted at it herself, hankering after a job in Europol, or anywhere more exciting than Edendale. But it was so odd to hear it from someone else. It made the idea sound as though it might be true.

‘Well, she’s ambitious,’ said Liz.

‘She certainly is.’

‘To be honest, I think it would be a good thing if she went, Ben.’

Cooper was silent for a moment, thinking about his Bruce Burger. He’d promised himself not to dwell on work tonight. Not the current enquiry, anyway. You had to escape from those things for a while.

‘There are always changes,’ he said. ‘Life never stays the same. See how different it is since you came to E Division.’

He meant changes in her department. Before Liz’s time, there had been a period when there were only two SOCOs in the division for eighteen months. But their performance was measured on volume crime, and no account was taken of serious crime and road traffic collision work. If Liz had grumbles, she ought to have heard the level of whining in Scenes of Crime for those few months.

But Liz took his comment quite differently, and went slightly pink. She changed the subject as their food arrived.