A divisional patrol had dropped her off earlier. She hadn’t expected it still to be waiting, but a parked vehicle about fifty yards away flashed its lights, and she walked tiredly over there – only to slow down and stop when she saw that it was a black Bentley Continental.

When she turned and headed in the opposite direction, the Bentley cruised after her, pulling up alongside her well before she reached the hospital gate, its window powered down.

‘Lucy …?’ McCracken said from behind the wheel.

She glanced and saw that he was alone, but she kept on walking. ‘I haven’t got time to talk to you. I’ve got to get back to the nick.’

‘I’ll give you a lift.’

‘Yeah, right.’

‘You got some other wheels round here?’

‘I’d rather walk than ride with you.’

He continued to idle along next to her. ‘You sure about that? I mean, I’d have thought you’d have a few questions about tonight.’

Lucy stopped and looked at him.

In a few minutes’ time, she was going to have to liaise with DI Blake and somehow get this entire mess on paper. It could only help if she knew as much as possible about what had actually been going on. That said, she still only climbed grudgingly into the Bentley’s front passenger seat.

‘Me first,’ McCracken said. ‘How’s your mother?’

‘Do you really care?’

‘Listen, love …’ He didn’t glance at her, as he drove them out of the hospital car park. ‘I know you like to think it was some kind of sordid one-night-stand that brought you into this world. But it’s about time you stopped confusing your own experience of love and sex with everyone else’s. Yes, I care.’

Lucy rubbed at the back of her neck; she was tired to the bone and aching all over. Continuing to resist him suddenly felt like a pointless, wearisome process.

‘It could be worse,’ she said. ‘The bullet went clean through. No major damage to arteries, nerves and such, though the scapula’s broken. She’s in intensive care tonight, but she’ll be on a visitor ward by tomorrow. If there are no complications, she’ll be allowed home in a couple of days. She’s obviously going to be incapacitated for a while. Probably best if I move back home for the duration.’

He nodded. ‘Okay, that’s all you needed to say. Now … your turn.’

Oddly, now that she was on the spot, no specific questions hovered at the front of Lucy’s mind. Fatigue fogged everything, but, while he was here – in amazingly timely fashion, it seemed – it would have been remiss not to enquire: ‘Why do I get the feeling you know a lot more about all this business than anyone else?’

McCracken shrugged. ‘I don’t know much more, but I’ve been educating myself as the evening’s worn on.’