‘That’s the one,’ Ron says.

‘The one what?’

‘The window Tanya shot. It’s like a legend down here, cost the owners a lot of money to repair. They weren’t happy; their insurance only covered part of it. In fact, we’ve got it here somewhere. Claudia, can you put it on?’

Tanya had told me about this, but I didn’t realize there was footage of it. It happened just a few days after we’d met, the separate cases we’d been working on crossing like fate. So much has happened since. All I can think is, I wish it hadn’t.

She’d come to the club in search of a suspect in a child-kidnapping ring we eventually brought down. The suspect in question decided he didn’t want to talk to her, however, and had assaulted her instead. Tanya was forced to pull her weapon, which would have put an end to it except the suspect had an accomplice who’d tried to take the gun off her. Which is when the shot was fired.

Claudia points to a screen, which was blank but now flickers on to show the main room, a few people in it. There’s movement in the bottom-left corner, and my heart thumps as I recognize Tanya, her face visible for a split second as she wrestles with the man trying to take the gun off her.

‘And … boom!’ Ron and Claudia say in unison like an old couple just as a spark of muzzle flash appears, and the massive wall of clear glass frosts over in an instant. Then the whole thing falls away, the view restored. Tanya’s no longer on the screen, but I remember that she’d managed to fight the guy off and single-handedly arrest both men.

‘I love watching that,’ Ron says as the image cuts to black. ‘Awesome woman. You got yourself a good one there. Okay, here it is,’ he says, having spent some time navigating various menus, clicking ever deeper into the belly of the beast. ‘What do you want to know?’

What I want to know is why it’s all so difficult, why I ended up hurting the only person I’d ever truly loved. Why I’m such a fuck-up. Why the black wolf is inside me and won’t leave.

But all I say is, ‘Everything you’ve got.’

‘Not much, but …’ He hits the enter key and a printer across the room whirrs into life just as my phone goes off. Vermeer.

‘I’ve got something I need you to do,’ she says. ‘Marianne Kleine’s sister Cheryl is landing at Schiphol airport just past midday. Jansen’s going to talk to her and I want you with him. He’ll pick you up.’

‘I can do that,’ I tell her. ‘Does that mean I’ve been approved?’

‘Not quite. There’s something else you’re going to have to do first.’

‘Which is …?’