Funny, I’ve been told that my whole life. Somehow it’s comforting to hear. Vermeer and Jansen disappear into their car. Again I tell myself I should just let it go. But I slip off the wall and step over quickly to knock on the car’s window. It slides down.

‘Yes?’ she asks in a sweeter-than-sweet voice.

‘You came to me, insinuating that I’d got the investigation wrong and sent an innocent man to prison and possibly left the real killer free to kill again.’

‘Yes?’

‘And I brought you Huisman. Without me you wouldn’t have discovered his alibi was probably worthless.’

‘Again, yes. Your point being?’

I think of the letter in my pocket. I think of Joel’s proposal. I also think of Lucie Muller, and of a man in prison, put there by me, who may not have been her killer after all. I think, even though I’m trying hard not to, whether it’s possible that a mistake I made years ago has caused Marianne Kleine to die in a pool of her own blood, her last seconds spent watching her life seep right out of her.

‘My point is this case is clearly connected to the Muller case. Which was mine and –’

‘Exactly. Was. It’s called the past tense.’ Her finger stabs a button and the car comes alive.

‘Is my case if it’s reopened. I can put a request in, and given what I discovered about Huisman I think there’s a very good chance it will be reopened.’

She reaches out and turns the engine off.

Jansen’s sitting in the passenger seat. I think he’s on my side. But who knows?

‘It might get reopened,’ she concedes. ‘But given your record, and the fact that I’m investigating the Kleine murder already it’ll come to me.’

‘Maybe. Or maybe they’ll want a larger team on it, maybe they’ll bring in someone else because the only break you’ve had so far has come from me, not you.’

‘I don’t think that’s likely.’

‘You want to take the risk? Go for it.’

She smiles again as the window glides up. The engine roars, the tyres bite hard and I’m breathing fumes. I watch them go. As the car disappears round the corner I decide it’s probably for the best. Going down this path is only going to end one way.