‘Can you even hear yourself?’ Katherine was just mocking her now. It was like a school cafeteria. If she had had a chocolate milk, she might have poured it on Sofia’s head. ‘Are you even sober?’

Andy was going to need a Heimlich if he kept choking on his croissant. Marcelo took a sharp breath, shocked by Katherine’s remark. I was not so surprised; Katherine had been a teetotaller since her accident, and anything other than total sobriety may have offended her.

‘I didn’t see you volunteering to help,’ I waded in, if only so Sofia could see someone was on her side. I wasn’t going to ask her at the table, as it would turn into a full-blown argument, but I was curious to hear more about whatever the Black Tongue was.

Katherine talked across me to Sofia. ‘That’s because I assumed he was asking for real doctors, not suspended ones.’

I’d only found out half an hour ago, while looking at a body, mind you, that Sofia’s surgical career was on the backburner, so I was still getting my head around it. I’d just assumed it was a mid-life crisis, a career shake-up. But Katherine was making an accusation. The same one she must have whispered to Andy in the crowd.

Sofia flushed red. She stood up and, for a second, I thought she was about to lunge across the table and Officer Crawford might well have an even busier day, but instead she folded her napkin, tossed it on her plate and said pointedly before leaving: ‘I’m still registered.’

‘Was that really necessary?’ I hissed at Katherine after Sofia was out of earshot.

‘I’m surprised she hasn’t told you. I thought you two were bolted together these days. Figures.’

‘Told me what?’

‘She’s getting sued.’ Katherine smirked. And all I could think of was: maybe fifty. ‘By the family of someone who died on her table.’ Andy made a glug-glug mime behind her. I now recognised the bite in Katherine’s words, accusing Sofia of being a drunkard. I thought of the six-pack of beer buried outside my door. She liked a drink, sure, but I’d never known her to overdo it. Had she made a mistake? Why hadn’t she told me?

I turned my attention to Marcelo. ‘If she’s getting sued, are you defending her?’

He looked over to Katherine, almost an appeal, but met her hard stare. He shook his head and said bluntly, ‘Her mess.’

I thought this very uncharacteristic of him; I’d always thought Sofia was his little princess. ‘You’ll defend Michael on a murder charge but not your daughter?’

‘Michael’s served his time,’ Lucy said. ‘No thanks to you.’