Louise shook her head, mortified. ‘A child would never have fixed our fucked-up marriage. It was over years ago.’

April pulled her into a fierce hug. ‘I’m sorry, honey. But you’re going to find yourself a really great guy. One who knows you’ll be an awesome mother, and who hasn’t got some crappy ex-wife Rebecca-ing in the background without having the good grace to be dead.’

Louise found herself caught between laughing and crying. She took a long breath in, trying to tip herself towards laughter, and said, ‘Thanks, April. For everything.’

‘You’re welcome,’ April said, releasing her with a half-smile. ‘Shall we go?’

‘Yes,’ Louise said. ‘Let’s go.’

34

Step Conti was the picture of unruffled calm. Even while he was stuck in a low armchair, with the DCI in full attack mode and two uniformed officers loitering in the background of his sitting room, he was calm and clear-headed. Hanson found herself wondering, idly, whether this was how Ben would be under interrogation.

Step explained that he had only ever had one copy of that knife. He also hadn’t shared with anyone where it had come from.

‘I couldn’t have done, because I didn’t know myself,’ he said. ‘Alex just told me he’d had it imported from Poland, and I didn’t try to find out. It’s beautiful as it is, without needing any history.’

Hanson wasn’t positive that she believed him. As strange as it might be to buy a second version of a very distinctive knife in order to kill with it, it wasn’t beyond the realms of the possible.

The DCI seemed to be thinking along the same lines and carried on with his questioning. Midway through, he suddenly changed tack.

‘Tell me,’ he said. ‘Did you have feelings for Alex Plaskitt that went beyond the purely friendly?’

And at that point Step had finally shown some kind of reaction.

‘Feelings for him? But I’m not – no, of course I didn’t.’ He shifted in the armchair and looked from Hanson to Jonah and back. ‘I’ve never fancied anyone male, and the only person on earth I’d get jealous about is through in the kitchen.’

‘Why were you so angry with him about kissing a woman at the club, then?’

Step shook his head. ‘Obviously because he was risking everything for something stupid and meaningless. I was angry because I know how much Issa means to him. Look, he’s screwed up before, and it was awful for both of them. Alex felt … If you’d seen how broken he was after he cheated on Issa …’

‘So you were acting as his conscience,’ the DCI said, with heavy scepticism. ‘Why is Issa so distrustful of you?’