‘Yeah, not bad.’ She patted the couch and he sat next to her. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. ‘You?’

‘A bit rough.’ He put his head on her shoulder. ‘I missed my girls.’

‘We missed you, too.’

She stroked his head and he closed his eyes.

‘God, I could go to sleep right now,’ he said. ‘At least I got out early. Carol told me to call it a day.’

‘That was nice of her.’

He looked around the room. ‘Where’s Jo?’

‘Sleeping. I put her down.’

‘I might have a nap myself.’

‘Me too.’ She held up her phone. ‘Big day tomorrow. I heard there’s a press conference I have to go to at nine. It’s about the murders. I think they may be about to confirm it’s a serial killer.’

‘Can you ask your buddy in the police? Get the story early?’

‘Nadia? I did. She wouldn’t confirm or deny. That’s what makes me suspicious. If there’s no news the police force is a like a sieve. They only stop talking when they’ve been told to.’

Tom crossed the room and went into the kitchen. He poured a glass of water. ‘That’s at nine?’ he called into the living room. ‘What’s the plan for Jo? Martha?’

Alice appeared in the doorway. ‘Yep. I called and she’s free.’ She hesitated. ‘We had the doctor’s appointment today.’

‘How was it? What did she say about the sleeping?’

‘She had a daughter who was the same. She thinks it’ll pass. But we should keep an eye on it.’

There was an awkwardness in the way she was speaking, a stilted, uncertain tone that made him pause.

‘Is everything OK?’ he asked.

‘There was one thing.’

His stomach clenched and his throat tightened. What was she going to tell him? His mind raced to a series of catastrophic conclusions in an instant. Some rare form of childhood cancer? A fatal disease with no cure? Some awful reason his daughter couldn’t sleep that would ruin her – and her parents’ – lives?

‘What is it?’ he said.

‘She – the doctor noticed a bruise—’

‘A bruise?’

‘—on her arm.’

‘Where on her arm?’

Alice touched the top of her bicep. ‘Here. On the front and the back. Like she’d been grabbed hard. Or pinched.’

Tom stared at her. ‘Pinched? How bad is the bruise?’

‘Not terrible. But it’s noticeable. Enough for the doctor to comment.’

‘Jesus. How did it happen?’

‘I don’t know. Dr Quinn asked me the same. I said maybe she’d been falling off a bed or couch and someone had grabbed her arm to stop her. I don’t remember anything like that, but I thought you might?’

He shook his head. ‘Nothing.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Are you saying I hurt her?’

Alice shook her head. ‘No! Of course not.’

‘It sounds like you might be.’