‘There was another man in our bed!’ He leaned forwards to point somewhere towards the door, as if the bed lay in that direction. ‘Some stranger who’s now dead!’

‘It’s clearly a horrible thing to find out,’ Patrick said. ‘I’m so sorry, Niall. But from the moment she hired me, I became her legal counsel as well as your friend.’

‘She doesn’t effing deserve legal counsel,’ Niall Reakes said through gritted teeth.

Lightman found himself smiling slightly at Niall’s non-swearing. His wife seemed to be much happier with colourful language.

‘Everyone deserves it, Niall,’ Patrick said, quietly. ‘Everyone.’

‘Well, I’m going to hire you instead,’ Niall said in sudden triumph. ‘You won’t be able to represent her, because it’ll be a conflict of interest.’

Patrick sighed. ‘I’m afraid the way it works is that I wouldn’t be able to represent you. But then you aren’t in current need of counsel, are you?’

‘Yes, I am,’ Niall said. ‘I need counsel to explain to me what the hell happened.’

‘I can help you with that, up to a point.’

Niall turned away, waving a hand in clear frustration, before he asked, ‘Did she take some – some – some bastard home and then find out too late he was violent?’

‘Your wife can’t remember a lot of the evening,’ the solicitor said. ‘She went out with her friend, April. The two of them ended up drunk. April left with a man she’d picked up, and Louise was left alone, and has a large memory blackout covering the later part of the evening.’

‘Oh, really?’ Niall almost laughed again.

‘It may be worth knowing,’ Patrick Moorcroft said, evenly, ‘that the young man who died was married. To another young man.’

There was absolute silence. Niall moved his head, opened his mouth, and then seemed to falter. ‘What?’

‘The details of the case are clearly complex. However easy it is to jump to conclusions, I think you need to be patient and let the truth come out. Louise has assured me that she doesn’t recognise the man in question, and is certain she couldn’t have been violent towards him or anyone else.’

‘And do you believe her?’ Niall asked. He came to stand close to Patrick, his hands in his pockets and his body leaning slightly forwards once again. ‘Do you think that’s true? Do you?’ There was a brief pause, and then Niall said, much more quietly, ‘Please, Patrick. Please tell me. I’m losing my mind.’

‘I know, Niall,’ the solicitor said, quietly. ‘And I do believe her. She’s clearly been through an awful day as well.’

Niall shook his head, for some reason unwilling to accept this. ‘Of course she has. She tried to hide some – some kind of murder.’