Somewhere below the bridge along the towpath, she heard a scuffle, a murmur and a splash that hit her conscience much too loudly not to be in part imagined. She had to drag her eyes from the spectacular show of green above. Pete was running towards the path, already making his way over the damp paving, pulling off his jacket, spinning wildly on the ice as he scrabbled along the path. When she looked down, the woman had gone, but in her wake, Liv spotted the unmistakable footprint near the water – she’d fallen. Or had she jumped? It didn’t matter either way.

‘The woman,’ she shouted, tearing herself out of Finn’s arms, but Pete was already there clambering over the wall and hanging until he dropped onto the towpath. ‘I’m coming,’ she screamed and then she was racing off down beneath the bridge, Finn left standing behind her, with no idea of what was going on. As she ran, she imagined Finn, looking around, wondering if it was some sort of prank and then, maybe following her. Yes, Finn was chasing behind them now, but he would be too late.

The woman was already out of sight. Liv couldn’t figure where she had gone in exactly, but Pete was swimming across towards the centre of the canal, diving in as if by some divine understanding he knew exactly where to look for her. And then, she saw it, the most amazing sight. She knew what it was, of course she knew it was just a reflection, but still it felt as if it was hypnotising her in some strange way. She was looking at a trail of shooting emerald stars in the water, like a path she knew she had to follow to help Pete rescue that woman and bring her back to safety.

And as she dived into the icy water, she felt that there was something about that woman that was so familiar. She’d known it when she spotted her from the bridge, but she hadn’t fully recognised it, so consumed was she in her new-found happiness.

20

L‌iv had missed her bus. That was the trouble with New Year’s: everything in this city seemed to run on a different time schedule, as if the normal world operated outside itself for a few crazy hours just this one night a year. She was hardly aware of how many bells Immaculate Heart church rang out as she walked along the towpath next to the canal. It was twelve, if she’d been interested, but the fireworks that spun out into the black sky overhead were enough to make her stop and she realised that she had managed to put one foot in front of the other and walk into a New Year.