‘Well, I was going to tell you,’ Max says, ‘but then I was on night shift for months, and I was so fucking tired. I wasn’t really coping, so I just moved in with Mum.’ He pauses. ‘And then, to be honest, all I wanted to do was go to Europe and forget about the whole mess. I mean I had some idea she’d taken the valium and stuff, but I was still too scared to say anything.’

It was while he was in Europe, he tells me, that he heard Rachel had killed herself, and he knew he had to speak up, no matter the consequences. Max had done what I wasn’t brave enough to do: he emailed Dr Lawson and told her what he had seen.

‘And there were a few pina coladas involved,’ he adds. ‘Dutch courage and all that.’

I nod empathetically. ‘At least you said something! I was such a fucking coward, Max.’

‘To be fair to you, mate,’ Max says, ‘Rachel didn’t know I’d seen them, so she never threatened me like she did you. Plus I didn’t have to work with them like you did.’

‘So you don’t think I’m pathetic for not reporting it straight away?’ I ask him.

He shakes his head. ‘Nah, I don’t know what I would have done in your situation. Probably just wanted to move hospitals.’

We both laugh. God, it feels good to have a laugh.

‘There’s only one bit of it that’s not quite true,’ Max says, looking nervous and taking a large gulp of wine.

I look at him. ‘What?’ I say. ‘Which bit?’

‘Well,’ he says, sheepishly, ‘you know how I said that I’d stayed back late to help in the operating theatre?’

‘Yeah,’ I say, ‘but that was true. You were helping Dr Glass.’ I recall talking to Max in the cafeteria the day after I’d overheard Rachel and the Joker in the change rooms. I didn’t get home until pretty late last night, he said. I was helping Dr Glass in theatre. I reckon he’ll give me a good reference.

‘Yeah, that is true,’ Max says. ‘But about Dr Glass …’

Dr Glass is head of one of the surgical departments and, like Dr Prince, a really big deal.

‘So he asked me out for a drink,’ Max says, grinning. ‘And I was rushing to get changed after theatre because he and I were meeting afterwards.’

I start to laugh properly now, so hard I can’t stop. ‘I should have known! What happened?’

Max rolls his eyes. ‘Well, what I was hoping was a rendezvous was actually just him introducing me to some senior surgical trainees he thought might be able to give me some more research—and you know how I am so over doing research. What a letdown!’

‘Disappointing,’ I say, grinning.