‘Ridley didn’t change, Jack. You did. You grew to respect him. And you were very lucky that he’s a patient enough man to have waited for you to do that.’ Jack loved the way Maggie could tell him off so gently. Whenever they argued about unimportant things, like dirty socks being balled up and thrown behind the washing basket instead of inside it, she could be as loud and belligerent as the next woman, but when she had something serious to say, she was quiet and calm. This made Jack listen attentively to every word she said. ‘Who do you like?’ she asked.

‘DC William Oaks; I like him. He’s honest and eager. DC Cariad Bevan is a tour de force. I’d bring them both back here in a heartbeat. And there’s a uniform, Sergeant Fiona McDermott: she knows people. I don’t mean that she knows important people; I mean she knows her community.’

Maggie knew that Jack rarely butted heads with lower-ranking officers; he was great at both teaching and learning from people who were no threat to his position. But with the higher-ups it was different. ‘It’s just egos, Jack, and I include you in that. When there are too many in one room, sparks are bound to fly.’

Jack smiled in consternation. ‘How can you be so clever one minute and, the next, you’re putting the TV remote in the dishwasher?’

Maggie mopped her gravy with a slice of bread. ‘It’s a gift.’

Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

Jack beat Maggie downstairs for the first time since Hannah was born. He was dressed in clothes that suggested he was about to do some gardening. In fact, he was off on a surveillance mission, to get his first look at Michael De Voe.

From Google Maps, Jack had identified a small café directly opposite the Chelsea Emporium which catered mainly for tradesmen on their way to and from work – hence his choice of clothes. When they first moved to London, Jack and Maggie didn’t have a garden, nor did they think they’d ever be able to afford one; so, Jack resigned himself to never owning that long yearned-for, middle-class status symbol, gardening clothes! But since Jack’s ‘lottery windfall’ all that had changed. Their garden was an eight-square-metre lawn, with beds down either side waiting for plants; and a small area of decking with loose panels that bounced as you walked across them. It was north facing, and too short to ever get the sun, but they loved it and Penny promised that come the summer, she’d plant the borders and make it into a beautiful safe space for Hannah.