Seeing Mattie now, it was hard to think of her as dangerous. He talked to her in a small office, reluctantly relinquished by staff, on the hospital wing. She was already there when he arrived, escorted by a male officer who’d brought him from the gate. She was dressed in a prison-issue tracksuit, but there were slippers on her feet and she seemed very young, reminded Joe of his daughter when she was ready for bed. He’d wanted to bring Mattie something. He always came with a small sweetener on his prison visits – cigarettes usually, especially if he was coming to see a man, cigarettes that were chain-smoked throughout the interview because prisoners weren’t allowed to take anything away with them. Most of the men smoked. Cigarettes hadn’t seemed appropriate on a hospital visit, so he handed over a small box of chocolates, not sure about the rules.

Mattie seemed disproportionately grateful and held the gift-wrapped box on her lap.

‘Did that fat cop send you?’

She could only be talking about Vera. ‘Aye, she thought you could do with the company.’

‘She was canny, like.’

Not when you really know her.

Mattie looked at him. Huge blue eyes in a wide, smooth forehead. ‘But what do you really want?’

‘A chat,’ he said. ‘About Jenny Lister.’

She nodded. ‘But I told the lady everything I know.’

Vera would like that, being called a lady!

‘You were ill,’ Joe said. ‘You had a fever. We thought you might remember a bit more now.’

‘It still knacks,’ she said and lifted her tracksuit top, quite unselfconsciously, to show him the wound on her abdomen covered with a dressing. Again he was reminded of his daughter showing off a scab on her knee.

‘It must be very painful,’ he said gently. He could understand why Jenny had been so taken with Mattie, why she’d come each week to visit, even though really she’d no longer had any formal responsibility for her. ‘Tell me about Jenny’s visits,’ he went on. ‘Was it the same every week?’

‘Yes. Every week. Not in the main visits room – you know, where you see your family and they have toys for the bairns. She said it was too noisy there and we wouldn’t be able to talk properly. Though if you’re there, they bring you a cup of tea and there are biscuits – chocolate if you get in early.’ She looked at the chocolates he’d brought her.

‘Why don’t you open them?’ Joe smiled. ‘I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but you could have a couple.’

She ripped the wrapping off and took one out.

‘So where did Jenny see you?’

‘In those little cubicles where you talk to your lawyer or the cops.’ Her mouth was already full of strawberry cream.

Did that mean that Jenny hadn’t wanted to be overheard? ‘What did you talk about?’