‘Dr – Mr Burton,’ Cleo said. ‘Please be honest with us. Is Bruno going to survive?’

There was an uncomfortable moment in which the assurance seemed to drain from the consultant’s demeanour. ‘Ordinarily I would do my best to give a positive prognosis. But I know from your lines of work you are both strong people, so I’m not going to dress this up – I assume that’s what you want from me? Honesty?’

‘It is,’ Grace said.

Cleo nodded in agreement.

‘OK. Bruno’s been admitted with a very weak pulse. Our initial assessment is that he has massive internal bleeding – probably from a ruptured spleen, which can be dealt with if that’s the case. More of a concern is the potential brain damage, along with other internal damage, and we won’t know that until the CT scan is done. But what I will say, to give you something positive, is that youngsters like Bruno are able to absorb remarkably high levels of impact, compared to adults.’

‘As I keep hearing,’ Grace said, more harshly than he intended.

His reassuring smile returning, Adrian Burton said, ‘I’ll be back with an update as soon as I have it but it’s likely to be at least an hour or so. Meanwhile, please do be assured your son is in the very best hands. We’re fortunate in having all our senior consultants on duty today.’

43

Tuesday 3 September

For the next twenty minutes, Roy paced up and down the room like a caged, distressed animal, barely saying a word, consumed by his own thoughts.

His phone rang. He was about to silence it when Cleo said, ‘Take it, darling.’

After a moment’s hesitation, he answered.

It was Glenn Branson. ‘What news, boss?’

‘Nothing so far, just waiting. I’ll let you know when we find out anything.’

‘We’re all here for you. As I said, don’t worry about anything at work, we’re taking care of it.’

‘Thanks, mate.’ He fought hard to hold back tears. ‘What’s happening at the coalface?’ He glanced at his watch. It was just gone 1 p.m.

Cleo remained seated, staring into space. She was finding it impossible to concentrate on anything.

‘Norman and Jon have headed back over to the custody centre, and Paternoster’s solicitor is on his way, too. We’ll see his reaction to the cat litter surprise – not.’

‘Yes. You’ll call me?’

‘If you want? Are you sure?’

‘I am,’ he said emphatically.

‘There’s another development – look, I don’t want to be bothering you at this time, boss.’

‘Don’t worry, I’ll tell you when to leave me alone. I’m sure Bruno will be just fine, he’s in the best hands.’ He caught Cleo’s eye and she nodded encouragement back.

‘Louise Soper spoke to the Collision Investigation Unit at Shoreham and they suggested it would be best if she took the Paternosters’ car, along with someone from Digital Forensics, over to the main BMW dealership, where they have all the diagnostic kit to interrogate the onboard satnav. She’s now done this and reported back. There’s something very interesting and possibly significant. Several things actually.’