‘Feeling better?’ he asked him, as the DI slid into the passenger seat.

Perry nodded. ‘Yes, thank you. I’ve seen the odd body before. You know, the old man who died in a toilet, the drug overdose in a doorway. But there’s something about seeing a young woman like…’ He ran out of words, his left hand rotating as if it could conjure a eulogy from thin air.

‘She’s got to me too,’ Gillard said, as he drove off. He knew that this was where, had they both been women, a bonding conversation of mutual emotional revelation might begin. But they were blokes, and it couldn’t be done that way. First of all there was silence, for a few uncomfortable minutes.

‘Did you see the England match the other night?’ Perry asked.

‘Yeah, total rubbish. He was never offside.’

Back on safer ground, they laughed.

Perry nipped home mid-shift to pick up a couple of datasticks that he had forgotten. He was surprised to see a black Range Rover parked on the road outside, blocking in his wife’s baby-blue Audi soft-top. Just as he was putting his key in the front door, it opened and Mel was there in a bathrobe, looking a little flustered and sweaty, her hair damp at the forehead. ‘I wasn’t expecting you back,’ she said. ‘I was just about to take a shower.’

‘I forget a couple of datasticks. Isn’t this your day to work full-time?’ He squeezed past her, and headed to the kitchen.

‘Normally, but Kate wanted to swap with me. So I just came in half an hour ago. I’ve been at the gym.’

‘Who’s car is that at the front? It’s blocking you in.’

She hesitated, and pursed her lips. ‘I don’t know. Look, John, do you have a few minutes? We need to talk about Vanessa.’

He turned to her. ‘God, what is it now?’

‘Come on through.’ She led him to the sun lounge at the rear of the house. It wasn’t very sunny, and the room was cool. ‘We need to do something about her drug taking. You said you would talk to—’

Perry sighed. Last weekend their seventeen-year-old daughter Vanessa had been among a dozen youngsters caught in possession of drugs at a rowdy party raided by police, in the centre of town. The number of ecstasy and amphetamine tablets she had on her seemed indicative of a custodial sentence, even as a first offence.

‘I’ve had a word, against my better judgement. Her file has been “lost”. She won’t be part of the case going up to the CPS.’

‘That’s brilliant, thank you so much.’

‘It’s not brilliant, it’s corrupt. I could go to prison if they find out.’

‘But they won’t find out, will they, darling?’

Darling? Not a word she used often.

She reached out for him and kissed him with unusual passion, her hands holding his face, her tongue probing inside his mouth. It had not been there for a very long time. As her bathrobe came undone, the tips of her breasts brushing against him, he started to feel aroused but, more than anything, surprised. After a minute, he gently pulled away and looked quizzically at her face. ‘Mel, that’s really nice, but I don’t have time. I’ve got to get back.’