‘Do you practise Islam?’ he asked warily, and to his continuing surprise she answered him.

‘On my terms.’ She was emphatic. ‘I pray at sunrise and sunset because my brother does and it’s the only control we have over our lives together. I fast during Ramadan because Violette wanted to do it one year and Nasrene wouldn’t let her. It would have been hypocritical if I insisted that she be allowed to if I wasn’t going to join her. Now I do it for my mother, who did it year after year on her own.’

She took a moment to collect herself. ‘My mother practised goodness. Part of that came from her religion. Giving to those less fortunate is one of the five pillars. That’s what I practise – the aspects of both my parents’ religions that make sense to me as a human. My brother is the same.’

Sometimes he couldn’t take his eyes away from her. It had to do with the passion and the fury.

‘And you? How do you feel about Catholicism now?’ she asked.

He grimaced. ‘I can’t get past the paedophile priests and brothers and cover-ups. I hate the hypocrisy of it. But probably the same as it was for you. My mother and father practised the good side of it, and that was the part of my childhood I remember most. The teenage years weren’t so good. I was petrified that everything I did was a sin. That every time I masturbated I’d be struck down.’

‘I’m presuming that was often.’

‘Every single day of my life when I was fifteen.’

‘Not during your St Francis of Assisi obsession.’

‘No, I abstained that year.’

She had a creeping smile. It began with a twitch.

‘Next?’ she said, going back to the file. But this time Bish managed to take it from her and she didn’t protest.

‘I wish a person of substance had written something of worth about me,’ she said. ‘Even if it was negative.’ She pointed to the file he held. ‘That’s what I’ve been reduced to? Petty people claiming to be authorities on my life. I wrote an amazing doctoral thesis, you know. There were only two copies out there. One with my professor and the other on my computer. My professor chose to publicly burn hers and the police confiscated my computer. So four years of feeling guilt for neglecting my husband and daughter and being seen as the least maternal person to join a mothers’ group amounted to nothing!’

He had opened up an old wound. He’d seen that same wound before in Rachel.

‘Not to mention moving my family back into my father’s house so I could complete my doctorate. That was right up there with the best decisions I made.’

Bish wondered how often that had plagued her mind over the years.

‘What they have on Ahmed Khateb isn’t concrete,’ she said suddenly. ‘It’s the same way they arrested my family. On circumstantial evidence.’

‘At the moment he’s the only suspect,’ Bish said.