‘I’m not just saying it because you’re Rachel’s sister or because we’re friends, but you were too kind, too caring and far too bloody soft for the likes of Eddie Quirke.’

‘Oh, Pete, that’s so nice…’ Because although it was a long time ago, Liv could remember what it was like to be invisible as a teenager. She looked at him now; he was very close and then, before she realised what was happening, they had leant towards each other, their lips just brushing together. It felt as if everything came crashing in simultaneously. Her senses were suddenly on high alert, her stomach turning somersaults and then they kissed and she was, for that protracted exquisite moment, lost.

Pete pulled back. ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.’

‘It was…’ She wanted to say perfect, but she couldn’t quite put the word together.

‘You were so… saying all those things and I’ve just messed everything up,’ he said standing so quickly he knocked over her bottle of beer. ‘Shit.’ Then he was grabbing a towel, drying up the mess. ‘I should get going. I’ll call you, if it’s not too… awkward?’ He bit his lip and then he was gathering up his coat and Liv was left looking about her and wondering if it had really happened at all.

12

It was Barbara.

‘Hi, Barbara, is everything okay?’ Liv asked wearily, knowing only too well that if everything was hunky-dory, the last person Barbara would be contacting was Liv.

‘Of course everything is not okay. I’m here on my own and there’s someone down at the end of my garden.’

‘Do you want me to call the guards?’ Liv squinted at the clock on her nightstand. It was three o’clock in the morning.

‘I’ve done that already, but everyone knows they are worse than useless. Last time it took them almost an hour to get here.’

‘Last time?’

‘Never mind that now, just come over here and see for yourself. There must be ten of them in it, smoking cigarettes and probably drinking too. I’ll wager not one of them is over fifteen.’

‘Right,’ Liv said pushing herself out of her lovely cosy bed. She moved automatically, slipping into her clothes and shoes, grabbing a flashlight – although there was always one in the jeep – shrugging into the warmest coat she could put her hand on in the porch before venturing out into the pitch-black of the night.