She left her hair to dry naturally and went out into the hall. Josie’s door was firmly closed, as was expected of any decent upper sixth form student; only rising when absolutely necessary. Kelly had helped her fill in her application for the universities of Warwick, York and Durham. That had caused an issue between her and Johnny, because he felt snubbed by his daughter. Surely he should be used to that? she’d told him. It didn’t go down well, and to be fair, it had been a low blow.

The lights were on downstairs and she could hear Millie singing to Lizzie. Kelly wanted the girl to have aspirations to leave the Lake District and follow her dreams, but every morning when she saw her with Lizzie, she realised that Millie’s dreams were right here, looking after a baby, and who was she to criticise? Just because she’d gone to the bright lights of London as soon as she passed her initial police training, it didn’t mean everybody followed the same path. And look how that had ended.

She went into the kitchen and made faces at her daughter, who giggled and screamed in delight.

‘Thanks for yesterday, Millie, you’re a life-saver,’ Kelly said.

‘I bet it was horrible, are you all right?’ Millie asked.

The kitchen was clean and tidy, and Millie looked as though she’d lived here all her young life. Kelly would struggle without her. She knew that Kate had hoped that her daughter would go to university, but she’d put it off for at least a year. Kelly felt guilty but she wasn’t about to kick Millie out.

‘Don’t even ask if I can stay all day today, of course I already am. I know enough now to know that when a big case starts, you have your hands full,’ Millie said.

‘Well, the crash will be dealt with by the accident investigation people. I won’t be involved apart from as an aid, but I’ll probably go over there today. Eggs?’ Kelly asked.

Millie nodded.

Kelly put on some toast and carried on reading her texts. One was from her father, Ted, asking how yesterday had been. Christ, he’d be busy with the bodies this week. Half of them would be sent to the Penrith and Lakes, and the other half to Carlisle. She worried about him. Not because he wasn’t up to it, but because she knew he wouldn’t stop. He wasn’t getting any younger, but at least she’d convinced him to hire a few more assistants, which wasn’t hard because he was a damn fine teacher and university hospitals were chomping at the bit to send their students to the eminent Ted Wallis. Kelly flicked on the radio, which was essentially part of her job on cases like this: to check what the journos were saying. It was all about the helicopter crash.