‘You’ve not had that crusader spirit knocked out of you yet, Lucy?’ he wondered.

‘It’s not about being a crusader, Dad. It’s about being able to live with myself.’

‘Having overly high expectations of yourself is often the route to failure.’

‘We’ll see.’

‘So, we’re still at daggers drawn?’

‘There can’t be any other way,’ she replied. ‘Look, you do your thing and I’ll do mine, and sometimes our paths will cross, and sometimes it may even suit us to scratch each other’s backs … I’ve had that much of the crusader spirit knocked out of me. But let’s not pretend we’re a real family, eh? Because I find that very objectionable.’

‘In times of crisis who else can you rely on?’

Another silence followed. She was a realist too, his daughter. She ought to know that she’d need all the help she could get in the months ahead, and who else was offering her a hand of friendship?

‘I’m sorry, Dad,’ she said, and she actually sounded as if she meant that. ‘But if we cross swords when we’re about our business, I’ll have to take you down. It may even be that that’s the only outcome possible for me … if I want to have a genuine police career.’

‘As I say, Lucy, those are some high expectations. Don’t be surprised if you crash and burn.’

‘That’s the other possible outcome,’ she replied, and she cut the call.

A Stranger is just a killer you

haven’t met …

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Do you know who’s

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