She leaves and I wait half an hour, then go to work. When I arrive I go straight to my office but Eileen waylays me on the corridor. She’s looking very excited. I can always tell when she’s got a secret to share because her thin lips stretch across her conspiratorial expression. She’s done her hair differently, less ‘just got up’ and more ‘professor’. She hurries towards me.

‘Oh my God, Caroline. You’ll never guess what. I just got out of a meeting and your latest piece of research has won mega funding. They’re so impressed with it that they’re using it as the showcase for the department.’

I smile widely, which hides my ‘how the fuck did that happen?’ sinking feeling inside. That will mean more meetings and less time to research. Or avenge myself against my philandering ex. On the other hand, it also means that, despite everything that has happened, my work is still excellent. I feel a stab of pride, puncturing the anger that had built up since I spoke to DS Percy.

‘That’s brilliant! Which part in particular? Did they say?’

She beams.

‘It was the piece you did on the Hare scale. How psychopathology can be high functioning. They felt like you had an enlightened approach and it was the best piece of reflexive work they had seen for a long time.’

She hugs me and follows me to my office and I wish she would just fuck off, but she doesn’t. She sits down. I need to check Frances’s phone but I can’t. Not here. I need to find out if you are warning people about me, if DS Percy is onto me.

‘… so they want you to move offices, into the Dolan Suite. Someone will take care of it, of course. But you might have to work somewhere else for the next couple of days. Is that OK?’

It’s more than OK. It’s perfect.

‘Oh. Well. I suppose so. I’ll find somewhere.’

She claps her hands.

‘Great.’ Her lips purse and now she’s serious. ‘Of course, there will be a national press release. This is the sort of thing the tabloids love. Psychopaths. They’re all over it. That’ll give your ex something to think about, won’t it?’

I smile and nod. This can go two ways for me. Either it can make me look like I’ve been working very hard and social services will believe that I am a reformed character. Or it will look like I’m trying to support my quest for revenge. I can see it now. ‘Obsessed, she was. Obsessed with trying to prove he’s a psychopath.’

‘I don’t want a lot of fuss. After all, lots of people have worked on this.’

Eileen clasps her hands in front of her.