I could feel acid rising up from my stomach, imagined the filthy bubble of it emerging slowly from my mouth and wrapping itself around me. I’d been lying on my bed, but when I tried to sit up, I thought I was going to be sick. ‘There must be something else.’

‘Not that I could see,’ he said.

‘What about offshore accounts, overseas banks, trusts or whatever?’

‘Sorry, what? You’re talking very fast.’

I took a deep breath and said it again.

‘Well, I suppose it’s a possibility, but that would involve widening the investigation significantly, and—’

‘You’ve missed something. You must have done. I mean it’s obvious that she’s hiding the money, isn’t it? Why don’t you get that?’

He said, ‘Do you mind me asking what this individual does for a living? If that’s information you’re happy to share.’

‘She’s a mental health nurse.’

He laughed. The useless twat actually chuckled. ‘Well, there you go then.’

‘What are you on about?’

‘Have you any idea how little they get paid? Nurses.’

‘She’s a nurse who’s dealing drugs to patients, fair enough?’ I knew I was shouting. I could hear my own voice bouncing back off the walls, but sometimes it’s the only way to make people see sense. ‘She’s obviously making a lot of money from selling drugs but for some reason you can’t find it. She also happens, by the way, to have murdered someone who was threatening to expose her and I know this for a fact, so don’t try and tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about. Because she’s got motive and she had opportunity and I’ve spoken to witnesses and taken statements for God’s sake and you were the one who told me that you could get the proof. You promised me you’d get the proof and now I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do. Do you want her to get away with it? Seriously, is that what you want?’

For a few seconds, all I could hear was the two of us breathing and the noise of Lucy moaning in the room next door. Then Howard said, ‘I think I should probably . . . step away from this.’

‘Kevin Connolly couldn’t step away, could he?’

‘I should also remind you that you need to pay the remaining half of my fee—’

‘Johnno couldn’t fucking step away.’

I was on the floor now, though I still don’t remember falling off the bed, and by the time I’d finished swearing at him, my so-called investigator had already hung up.

I remember thinking that the floor was the ceiling and clinging on to the end of my bed for dear life to stop myself falling.